"Picasso and Paper" Preview & Curator Tour - Cleveland Museum of Art

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Please join us for a preview of Picasso and Paper. Featuring nearly 300 works, the exhibition is a groundbreaking new look at the artist’s lifelong experimentation with paper, a medium he used to reshape modern art. Picasso and Paper is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3
Open house: 12:00-4:00 p.m.
Curator-led Tour: 1:00 p.m. – Tour led by Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
FYI, I downloaded this Cleveland Museum of Art Facebook video, so that on on December 2, 2024, I could share this official Picasso and Paper announcement on Bluesky Social.

Picasso and Paper
Sunday, December 8, 2024–Sunday, March 23, 2025

Location: Special Exhibition Hall (003) and Special Exhibition Gallery (004)
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery

Ticket Required
. . .
. . . His appreciation of and experimentation with the material is revealed in the works ranging from collages of cut-and-pasted papers to sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper, manipulated photographs, drawings in virtually all available media, and prints in an array of techniques. . . .

The exhibition presents these works on paper chronologically alongside a limited number of closely related paintings and sculptures. For example, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s La Vie (1903), from Picasso’s Blue Period, will be featured with preparatory drawings and other works on paper exploring corresponding themes. In the Cubist section, Picasso’s bronze Head of a Woman (Fernande) (1909) (Musée Picasso, Paris) will be surrounded by a large group of associated drawings. Seen together, these groupings highlight the connections that Picasso saw between media and the integral role that paper played throughout his artistic practice.

I was fortunate to attend the Cleveland Museum of Art's preview of their new Picasso and Paper exhibition on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. As I was talking to blogger Dan Hanson during the preview, he pointed out how incredibly lucky we are to have the Cleveland Museum of Art bring this exhibition to Cleveland. Cleveland is one of very few places in the world where this exhibition will be shown.

I not only appreciated seeing the amazing artwork, but it was great to be given a tour by Curator of Prints and Drawings Britany Salsbury. She was able to give the historical background in a personal way during the tour she led. I always like to first visit the galleries of a special exhibition, and then attend a tour with a curator or docent.

Britany Salsbury joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in March 2018. . . . Previously, she was associate curator of prints and drawings at the Milwaukee Art Museum; was a postdoctoral Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; and held research and fellowship positions in the drawings and prints departments of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. . . . Salsbury received a BA in art history and English at Case Western Reserve University and an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She completed an MPhil and a PhD at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where her dissertation on print portfolios in fin de siècle Paris was supported by funding from the Getty Research Institute and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The exhibition is huge, filling all of the museum's special exhibition space (both the Exhibition Gallery and the Exhibition Hall). With all this artwork, you will want to take time to view it closely, so I highly recommend planning to take plenty time to see it all. I also recommend taking a break halfway through the exhibition and then coming back with fresh eyes to see the second section. Idea: Take some time to relax in the museum's Ames Family Atrium to enjoy the beautiful Christmas tree, or have a snack/meal from the museum's Provenance Café in the Atrium.

. . . in both the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery spaces, Picasso and Paper showcases nearly 300 works spanning Picasso’s almost eight-decade career. . . . The exhibition opens with paper cutouts made by Picasso at the age of nine, then proceeds chronologically, covering his long, rich career. Endlessly fascinated with new and varied types of paper, Picasso used traditional materials, but also others that were unusual, including mass-produced wallpapers and daily newspapers. . . . Ticket Pricing Adults $22; seniors and groups $15; member guests, students, and children ages 6–17 $11; children 5 and under and CMA members free. Tickets are expected to book quickly and are not guaranteed. Your first choice of date and time may not be available, so please have other date and time options in mind when reserving tickets. Advance ticket sales are highly recommended.

I am planning to come back to see the exhibition again with my wife and co-blogger, Julie, for one of the docent-led Picasso and Paper exhibition tours (reserve your ticket online). These tours are offered "Daily 2:35–3:35 p.m. from Tuesday, January 7, 2025 until Friday, March 14 2025," but I expect that they will sell out soon.

On the lower level of the museum's East Wing, Picasso and Paper begins in the Special Exhibition Gallery (004) and then continues in the Special Exhibition Hall (003) (see the Visitor Guide and Museum Maps). I divided up the photos and videos I took during the preview as into the following section:

• Welcome to CMA
  and
  The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery

• Tour with Prints & Drawings Curator Britany Salsbury

• Break to Enjoy the Ames Family Atrium and a Meal from Provenance Café

• The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall

 

 

Welcome to CMA and The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery

The exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in Partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris.

For this preview, I tried to not only take photos of the Picasso artwork, but to also capture photos of the descriptions that were in the gallery next to the artwork. I also include signage describing the gallery sections (i.e. Rose Period 1904-6; Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Women of Avignon) 1906-8; Cubism 1908-14; Parade).

I was interested to learn that the oldest piece in the exhibition, Dove and Dog paper cutouts, were made by Picasso at age nine. Thus, the artwork covered in the exhibition ranges from his early childhood to the end of his life.

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts about the artwork.

 

 

Tour with Prints & Drawings Curator Britany Salsbury

Thank you, Britany Salsbury, for the tour:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts about the artwork.

 

 

Break to Enjoy the Ames Family Atrium and a Meal from Provenance Café

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The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts about the artwork.

 

 

What Others Say About Picasso and Paper!

Here are other blog posts and articles from people who attended the preview of the Picasso and Paper exhibition:

• Picasso and Paper Special Exhibition Preview
  Cleveland Museum of Art
  December 3, 2024
  On view December 8, 2024 - March 3, 2025
  By Dan Hanson.

  It was good to talk to Dan Hanson during the preview as he prepared to do his video walk-through of the exhibition. (He is well known for his walk-through videos of cultural venues in Cleveland.) He created two tour videos that he embedded in his blog post. The first video is 47:44 minutes long, and includes the full tour by Cleveland Museum of Art Prints and Drawings Curator Britany Salsbury. The second video is a 15:14-minute walk-through of the exhibition with Dan Hanson.

  I like that the exhibit is chronological so it begins with items from Picasso's Blue Period and then the Rose Period and so on. You can witness both his evolution as an artist and what was happening in his life and in the world through the successive galleries.
  . . .
  There is a whole gallery dedicated to the work leading up to, and the end product of, for a ballet called "Parade." That includes the over 9' paper/cardboard costume for the ballet.

• Long-awaited ‘Picasso and Paper’ immersion at Cleveland Museum of Art celebrates a creative iconoclast
  Published: December 5, 2024, 6:00 a.m. Updated: December 5, 2024, 8:32 a.m. By Peter Chakerian, cleveland.com

  He claimed that he could draw before he could speak and enrolled in municipal art school in Barcelona by his early teenage years. Four years later, he joined a vanguard of artists in Paris and discovered the likes of Gaugin, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec.
  . . .
  The exhibition presents a dizzying array of works on and with paper presented chronologically alongside a limited number of closely related paintings and sculptures. Viewers get to see much of the creative process and preparatory drawings that lead to some of Picasso’s greatest works.
  . . .
  One of Picasso’s sayings serves to punctuate “Picasso and Paper” with aplomb. During a sneak preview of the exhibition on Tuesday afternoon, CMA print and drawings curator Britany Salsbury noted that the artist was “a bit of a hoarder, keeping every scrap of paper that crossed his path.”
  . . .
  The pandemic shut down the “Picasso and Paper” exhibit after its debut at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, then postponed its original Sept. 22, 2020, opening at the CMA indefinitely.
  . . .
  What’s more, some pieces are on view very briefly, due to their fragility and need for careful preservation storage. To that end, the show’s Dec. 8 opening and limited run is an absolute thrill, one “not likely” to be extended. . . .

• Photos: A Preview of "Picasso and Paper," Opening December 8 at CMA
  Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 1:46 pm. By Emanuel Wallace, Cleveland Scene.
  It is always good to talk to Emanuel Wallace at events like this, and highly recommend following him on social media to learn about all the events that he features in his online photo essays.

• Cleveland Museum of Art’s massive ‘Picasso and Paper’ more than name suggests
  Originally set to open four years ago, exhibition examines Spanish artist’s work from multiple angles
  UPDATED: December 6, 2024 at 2:46 PM EST. By MARK MESZOROS, The News-Herald.

  Taking in “Picasso and Paper,” you’ll also be exposed to many variations on a piece.
  
  “Picasso really struggled with the idea of finishing a work,” Salsbury says. “He once made a comment about how to finish a work is its death, so he revisited his work … again and again, considered it from every vantage point, every perspective, considered variations in the composition.”

• ‘Picasso and Paper’ at Cleveland Museum of Art reveals artist's creative process
  Published December 6, 2024 at 2:59 PM EST. By Carrie Wise, Jean-Marie Papoi, Ideastream Public Media.

  I believe the following video was created during the preview, since you can see the videographers interviewing Britany Salsbury in my photos. This is an excellent video to watch before going to Picasso and Paper, since it features Britany Salsbury sharing information about Picasso's artwork.

  ‘Picasso and Paper’ at Cleveland Museum of Art reveals artist's creative process
  Ideastream Public Media
  . . . Dec 6, 2024 THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
  “Picasso and Paper” explores how the influential artist created some of his masterpieces and experimented with paper throughout his career. From drawings and prints to collages and cutouts,
  there are nearly 300 pieces from throughout the Spanish-born artist’s life. The Cleveland Museum of Art organized the exhibit with the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in partnership with Musée national Picasso-Paris. It's on display in Cleveland until March 23, 2025.

 

 

Related Blog Posts

I always like to include a list of related blog posts that may be of interest to the readers of this blog post.

See more by reading some of my 59 "CMA (Cleveland Museum of Art)" past blog posts, or 77 "University Circle" past blog posts.

Currently there are 95 other blog posts tagged "Art!"

 

 

 

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Disclosure: I received an invitation to attend the Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Media & Influencer Preview of Picasso and Paper, which included admission to the exhibition, a tour led by CMA Prints and Drawings Curator Britany Salsbury, and lunch from the museum's Provenance Café. Since my wife and I are members of the Cleveland Museum of Art, we were already entitled to free tickets to Picasso and Paper.

The invitation to attend came as a result of my wife/co-blogger, Julie's, and my support of the Cleveland Museum of Art with our many sosAssociates.com blog posts about the museum. I enjoyed the preview, and wrote this blog post to share my experience at the Picasso and Paper exhibition. I plan to use my membership benefit to return to see the exhibition again with Julie. I was very grateful to be able to attend the preview!