The Elmhurst Art Museum’s exhibition on Pablo Picasso will mark the 50th anniversary of the famed Modernist’s death in a program that begins with Picasso’s work in context with some of his peers, then focuses on a lesser known aspect of his work and finishes with a look at contemporary artists he has influenced.
Picasso: 50 Years Later opens September 9 and will run through January 7 of next year in the Museum’s three galleries.
“It’s a three-part show,” said Executive Director John McKinnon. “Each room is a distinct show or gallery within it.”
The first gallery introduces Picasso and some of his contemporaries with original works by Picasso, Alexander Archipenko, Wilfredo Lam, Ferdinand Leger and Joan Miro. Miro may be best known locally for his sculpture, Chicago, which stands at 69 W. Washington St., almost directly south of the Picasso sculpture on Daley Plaza.
All the original art in the first gallery is on loan from a local private collector, according to McKinnon, who noted that until recently the Museum couldn’t have housed or cared for such a collection.
“We couldn’t have had this show up without our recent HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) renovation,” he said, of the major fundraising project completed this spring at a total cost of just over $1 million.
The middle gallery will house Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocut Prints from a Private Collection, a traveling program put together by curator and art historian Richard Townsend.
Townsend, who has worked with a number of museums, was organizing an exhibition of Picasso prints when he talked with McKinnon about it. McKinnon, Townsend said, immediately saw the potential to add that exhibition as part of the Elmhurst program.
“Linocut prints are a really fascinating aspect of Picasso’s work,” Townsend said of the technique known as linoleum block printing. Picasso really reinvented artistic language and synthesized Modernism, an inventiveness the artist carried into making linocut prints. Townsend said.
In Barcelona, Picasso met a young print shop owner, Hidalgo Arnera. Arnera had been using the linocut process to produce posters. It was Picasso’s idea to use the process to produce fine art, but fine art of multiple originals.
“He called it painting with colors,” Townsend said. “He and Arnera did some amazing stuff.”
The words progressive and proof are keys to the series of prints in the exhibition. “Progressive — his ongoing experimentation to arrive at just the right image,” Townsend said.
That experimentation and process will be on display in the gallery, as visitors can follow the progression through several proofs of the artwork that eventually is published as limited edition prints. One of those final prints has been reproduced as a poster for the show.
The last gallery in the show presents works by contemporary Chicago area artists whose work Picasso influenced. They include Laura Berger, Liz Flores, Richard Hull, Leasho Johnson, and José Lerma.
Chicago-based artist Flores talked about the influence of Picasso and his contemporaries on her work.
“Picasso’s work and the cubist movement was a first step for me in terms of unlocking parts of my imagination,” Flores said, “and pushing the boundaries of reality.”
Picasso: 50 Years Later runs from Sept. 9 through Jan. 7, 2024 in the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Avenue, Elmhurst. The exhibit includes a number of related programs and events. More information, including hours and ticket prices, is available at: Homepage | Elmhurst Art Museum.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
