Exhibition Review: Picasso @AGOtoronto

My absolute #1 goal for the summer was to see the Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Finally I was able to make it up to Toronto and see his work in person. I have been meaning to blog about the exhibition since I went two weeks ago, but I've been so busy with commissions.

Something the exhibition curator did that I just love: in the exhibition brochure was a blank page. The text bordering the page encouraged visitors to create something while they were in the space. Had I more time, I would have sat down and created a masterpiece on that little piece of paper, but the gallery was closing shortly so I took some time after I got back to cram as much of my thoughts as I could onto the page.

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso  

Death of the Toreador, 1933

Please continue reading for my informal review of  the exhibition.


The Exhibition: 

This exhibition was part of the world tour "Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso." The art on display were mostly from Picasso's private collection of personal works. It included a wide variety of sketches and studies, sculptures, prints, and paintings.

I was actually quite disappointed with the exhibition itself. The curation could have been better. For one, the traffic flow was not very well thought out. In a normal gallery space, viewers can wander to and fro within the open space with no problem. However, for a special exhibition like this, my expectations were very high. I expected a more organized traffic pattern to move along with the storyline of the exhibition. It was frustrating, and hard to appreciate the art, when people were moving all over sporadically.

If you didn't pay for the audio tour, you didn't really get much history and background. That was disappointing as well. I would have liked to know more about what was going on in the world at that time and in Picasso's personal life while he was creating these fabulous pieces of artwork. I would have loved additional discussion accompanying his work regarding the techniques he used, and his unique process of painting, which was obvious to the art-educated eye but perhaps not to everyone else.Only a select few art piece were accompanied by a paragraph of text so small that you couldn't read it from more than a foot away.

The Man Himself:

Man With Guitar, 1911

Picasso is a household name, but do people truly understand why? After seeing his work in person, now I understand why. This man was the definition of a prodigy. He was a master of classical techniques. You can tell in any of his work, traditional or abstract, that he possessed practical skills to a high degree. But he decided when and how to use them. A lot of the work in this exhibition was rather crude, some even half-finished. Because of this, you could  see his work process, which was fascinating. He did everything his own way, in his own order. Instead of building up a painting in layers, he worked on the "fun parts" up to completion, then moved to the "boring stuff" like the background. Sometimes he didn't even bother finishing the background, as if his ADD kicked in and he simply walked away and never came back to it.

And it doesn't even matter if a painting is half finished, because it's a Picasso, and it's amazing. It has no choice but to be amazing. Even if it sucks, it's still amazing. Because it's a Picasso. That whole concept marks a huge shift in art culture. Before the era of modern art, very few artists became well-renowned during their lifetimes-- hence the old "my artwork will be worth more when I'm dead" stigma. Picasso's career was jump-started at the age of 19 when he was featured in the 1900 World Fair in Paris. He was famous by his early 20s.

Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

That, combined with the fact that he already mastered many skills at such a young age, paved the way for him to spend the rest of his career evolving and experimenting. He didn't follow a natural progression like most artists did. He didn't work his whole life developing a unique personal style that culminated in the great golden age of his lifelong career-- that style was ever-present. His "phases" were all very different. Picasso transcended the boundaries of "normal" in every way. He was more modern than those who followed in his (enormous) footsteps.

Man With Sheep, 1944

Questions Unanswered:
I would like to know more about his mind. You can see the way he thinks in a lot of his work; playing, deconstructing, experimenting. As I touched on earlier, he would focus so intently on one section of a work and put in so much detail, then neglect the rest. I've never seen that kind of contrast in a finished art piece.

As much as I found his methods fascinating, I am also very intruigued with the deeper meaning in some of his work. Much of what he does partakes in a dialogue with art history. There is a heavy Greco-Roman influence in his figures and imagery. Without any prior knowledge, I felt like his sculpture "Man with Sheep" was his rendition of sculptures produced by the ancients, and I want to know why. I want to know the story behind it; what significance does he place in this man carrying a sheep? Both pagans and Christians used the same iconography with religious connotations, is he doing the same? Or is it satirical?

Final Thoughts:
I felt privileged to have been in the presence of artwork created by one of the greatest artists of the modern era. The exhibition did not display many of his well-known works and masterpieces, but instead offered a more personal vantage into the lifelong work of Pablo Picasso. To an artist and art appreciator such as myself, that is just as satisfying. Despite my qualms with the way the exhibition was laid out, I would still recommend everyone to spend a day at the AGO and see it before it moves on to the next stop on its tour at the end of August. Also, the AGO has affiliations with many different programmes and other museums. My membership at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal got me into the exhibition for half price, so make sure to always ask!

Thanks for reading :)