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Art Tue Mar 05 2013
Picasso and Chicago: An Artist Who Shaped Our City
If you think you know Pablo Picasso, a visit to The Art Institute of Chicago's new exhibition Picasso and Chicago might have you second-guessing your expertise. In a sweeping tour of dozens of rooms, nooks and hallways, Picasso and Chicago takes viewers on a captivating journey into the artist's life and works. You would be hard-pressed to find an exhibition that is more engaging or more thoughtfully laid out.
In Picasso and Chicago, we learn of the people, places and events that shaped Picasso's work: the many women who served as his muses, including Fernande who inspired Picasso's cubist sculpture Head of a Woman (1900); the many landscapes that sparked his imagination, like the Cote d'Azur, which shaped his exploration of fauns and other mythical figures; and his relationship to wars happening around him, including the Spanish Civil War, which informed his notable and anguish-filled work Guernica (1937).
Incredibly, Picasso and Chicago also finds time to shed light on the artist's process, exhibiting sketches upon sketches by the artist that you never had a chance to see in Art History class, and unveiling discoveries informed by the latest technology that give us a deeper understanding of Picasso's most famous works. Using technology like x-radiography, transmitted infrared imaging, and raking light, Picasso and Chicago reveals little-known facts about the materials the artist used, including the controversial paint Ripolin in The Red Armchair (1931), and the first drafts Picasso discarded or painted over in some of his most well-known paintings. It will shock you to see how famous works such as Mother and Child (1921) evolved from a full, family scene at mealtime to a sparse picture of a mother and son on a beach.
Finally, the exhibition perfectly frames this wealth of visual, historical and psychological information about Picasso with the artist's most notable contribution to Chicago, namely, Monument for Richard J. Daley Plaza (1965). As the beginning and ending of the exhibition, the Daley Plaza monument serves to deeply connect an artist who died almost forty years ago to our every day lives as Chicagoans, while simultaneously emphasizing the role that art plays in our city. An exhibition as vast, intricate, and profound as the man himself, Picasso and Chicago is a Chicago event not to be missed.
Picasso and Chicago is open from Wednesday, February 20, 2013-Sunday, May 12, 2013 in Regenstein Hall at The Art Institute of Chicago (111 S Michigan Ave). Visitor information at artic.edu.
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