"Picasso Master Prints" at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Picasso Master Prints Exhibit

      As Neil and Eric have said before, the Cincinnati Art Museum is always worth a visit because it has excellent pieces from all the major periods of Western art.  There are always interesting special exhibits or collections as well.  One of these current exhibitions displays about fifty Picasso prints from the ‘30s to the ‘60s.  I happen to think that Picasso was the greatest artist of the 20th century and, arguably, the greatest western artist since Michelangelo because he excelled in multiple media and painted a cat like me playing with a bird.  

Profile in Three Colors, 1956

      The pieces in this exhibit display Picasso’s mastery not only of printmaking, but also of styles ranging from late Cubism, Neo-Classicism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and a subdued Impressionism.  Some figures are from Greek myths, while others are very personal characters from Picasso’s extensive and complicated romantic life.  One set deals with the entire sequence of a bullfight and it’s both dreamy and redolent with violence.  It’s amazing to realize Picasso’s influence on contemporary graphic design in color and patterning of line and shape.  

Two Clowns, 1954

The exhibit runs through May 13, 2012.

http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org

Cat Devouring a Bird, 1939
(not included in the exhibit)