The Picasso Sculpture exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is truly a marvel of Modern Art. This rarely seen collection was never made public during Picasso’s lifetime. These sculptures dwelled in Picasso’s Home and Studio and it was not until his death that they were made public. It was as though he couldn’t part with these three-dimensional creatures he created.
The exhibition features more than 140 pieces of work, which were created between 1902-1964. MOMA had a previous exhibit in 1967, as well as, exhibits in London and Paris, but none have had the enormity of what his been gathered today.
It’s not surprising that his creativity extended beyond drawing and painting and into sculpture. Picasso was a trailblazer and a co-founder of the Cubism movement. His Cubist period should have given us a hint that his curiosity extended past the canvas and incarnated into sculpture. In the cubist movement objects were taken apart, put into different planes and several points of view all culminating simultaneously in the same space and view point. This was supposed to give the viewer a three-dimensional view. The three-dimensionality of Cubism was a natural catalyst to have Picasso’s work evolve into a three-dimensional form, and thus bringing cubism into the realm of sculpture.
One can really see how Picasso took very mundane objects, such a pitcher, easel or toy car and transformed them into stunning sculptures. His genius, unique, creative, innovative, and ever evolving mind is evident in his sculptures, which were continuously morphing into many incarnations. I love that it was “sculpture in the round” so to speak, allowing the viewer to see it at every angle. At each viewpoint one gets a different perspective of what may have been going on inside Picasso’s beyond brilliant mind.
View the Exhibit Info at Moma.org
