June 26–September 19
Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso—two giants of twentieth-century modernism whose works are widely known but who are not usually mentioned in the same breath. It is a fact that both Calder and Picasso were working in Paris around 1930 and that each was aware of the other’s doings. However, personal meetings between the two were few and far between, and each followed a different artistic path.
Nonetheless, this exhibition—which was conceived by the two artists’ grandsons, Alexander S. C. Rower and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso—demonstrates many conceptual and formal parallels between the two artists’ works. These are parallels rooted in a shared interest in exploring line, volume, and, especially, the void, or the absence of space. Thus, both artists sought ways to present or represent non-space in their works, whether by reducing mass to something only suggested by evanescent outlines (as in Calder’s sculptures) or by expressing contortions of time and collapsing personal and universal experience (as in Picasso’s portraits).
In essence, this exhibition of more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper presents an artistic conversation that both reveals surprising connections between Calder and Picasso and affirms and clarifies their distinctive visions, goals, and solutions.
See it first and free!
Register today for the Calder-Picasso Member Preview Days on Thursday, June 24, and Friday, June 25. Visit high.org/event/calder-picasso-preview for details.
Exhibition catalogue available for purchase at the Museum Shop and at museumshop.high.org. Members receive 10% off Shop purchases.
