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13/7/2007

Picasso

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles

A Graphic View

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts gallery opens its summer exhibition - Picasso: A Graphic View - Saturday, July 14, with a reception from 6 to 9 PM. The exhibition will extend through Saturday, September 8. Picasso: A Graphic View will include 80 ceramics and works on paper, including thirty etchings from Picasso’s important Vollard Series executed in the 1930s. This series from Picasso’s neo-classical period represents some of the most iconic images created by the artist. Ambroise Vollard, who commissioned these remarkable etchings, was the pre-eminent champion and dealer of modern art in Paris at the turn of the 20th century.

In the Vollard Suite, Picasso’s subjects metamorphose into mythical figures–gods and goddesses, centaurs and nymphs. It is an extraordinary sequence in which he explores the ideas of love, lust, the artist as creator and the mistress as muse. Several etchings in this tour de force prove prescient as their compositions, can later be found echoed in Picasso’s 1937 masterpiece - Guernica. This is clearly illustrated by Femme Torrero, III, executed on June 22, 1934. While one of the most rudimentary images in this series, it is almost entirely precedent to Picasso’s masterpiece painting.

During his lifetime (1881-1973), Picasso was a prolific artist who investigated virtually all media. His passion for printmaking was evident as he committed himself to every aspect of graphic work throughout his career, working in a range of techniques including etching, drypoint, aquatint, lithography, linocut, etc. He was wildly experimental and inventive, often ignoring technical considerations to create new achievements in the media. This exhibition is an ambitious survey of some of Picasso’s most important graphic work.

Picasso’s interest in creating original works in series extended beyond the confines of the flat surface, having created bronze sculptures as early as 1901. Notable in his pursuit was his expansion of three-dimensional possibilities realized through his ceramic works, beginning in 1947 at the Madoura studio in Vallauris. This exhibition includes a remarkable collection of some 40 examples of Picasso’s ceramics spanning his entire career.

Picasso’s ceramics stand uniquely in the mainstream of modern art history, as no other 20th century masters committed themselves so formidably to the medium before or since Picasso. It would be more than two decades from when Picasso began this body of work that contemporary artists in the mainstream would emerge in the application of original ceramics as a primary aspect of their oeuvres. Interestingly, the most notable endeavors bringing ceramic works to the artworld mainstream were manifest in California through the work of Peter Voulkos, John Mason, Robert Arneson, Ken Price and others.

Picasso: A Graphic View, with 80 works, is presented in tandem with a group exhibition of 30 works by contemporary and modern artists including Alexander Calder, Henri Matisse, Egon Schiele, Auguste Rodin, Arthur Dove, Arshile Gorky, Hans Burkhardt, Mark Tobey, Oskar Fischinger, Francisco Zuniga, Ruth Weisberg, Jerome Witkin, Sam Francis, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol.

Opening Reception: July 14, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
357 N. La Brea Avenue - Los Angeles
Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10am-6pm; Saturday, 10am-5pm
Free admission

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