By Darcy Schwass
Cincinnati Arts Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum will celebrate Pablo Picasso’s legacy with an unprecedented exhibition, the first to explore his prolific engagement with landscape over his 75-year career. Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds features paintings and sculptures by the artist from some 25 public and private collections across the United States and Europe.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) used landscape throughout his life to establish himself in new surroundings and to push forward into new styles of painting and sculpture. The exhibition, featuring more than 40 paintings, is the first project to explore the breadth of the artist’s lifelong work within the landscape tradition.
“It is an extraordinary thing to be able to show an artist as renowned as Pablo Picasso in a wholly new light,” says Peter Jonathan Bell, PhD, the museum’s curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings, who is leading the exhibition’s presentation in Cincinnati. “His mastery of the human form and of still life is unquestioned. With the works assembled for this exhibition, we are finally able to appreciate how significant landscape was for Picasso throughout his life, and in turn how consequential Picasso was for landscape painting.”
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds is part of “Picasso Celebration 1973–2023,” linking over 50 exhibitions and events at renowned cultural institutions across Europe and North America to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death.
The Cincinnati Art Museum will offer free admission to Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds during the ticketed exhibition’s opening weekend, Friday, June 23–Sunday, June 25. The free opening weekend–and free access to the exhibition every Thursday evening–are made possible by presenting sponsor Duke Energy. Though there’s no admission charge, visitors will need to register online in advance for a timed ticket for opening weekend.
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds features paintings and sculptures by the iconic artist from some 25 public and private collections across the United States and Europe. This exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts with guest curator Laurence Madeline and the exceptional support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris. It will be on view through October 15.
After June 25, exhibition tickets will continue to be timed and will be $18, with discounted rates for students, children and seniors. Admission is free for museum members, though they will need to register for timed tickets except during exclusive hours.
The exhibition is free for nonmembers every Thursday evening, thanks to Duke Energy, from 5–8 p.m. and from 5–9 p.m. on June 30, July 28, August 25 and September 29 during Art After Dark. The exhibition also will have timed entry during those timeframes, and tickets can only be acquired the day-of, in-person at the front desk beginning at 4:30 p.m.
“This exhibition brings us into the world of one of the defining figures of modern art, and it does so in an original and unexpected way,” explained Peter Jonathan Bell, curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum. “Landscape was absolutely fundamental for Picasso: the many environments in which he lived and worked are intertwined with his art. And throughout his 75-year career, Picasso engaged deeply with the tradition of landscape painting that stretches back to the Renaissance, reshaping it again and again.”