Picasso's Drawings 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition November 3, 2011

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest draftsman of the twentieth century. The Frick Collection in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., have co-organized an exhibition that will look at the dazzling development of Picasso's drawings, from the precocious academic exercises of his youth in the 1890s to the virtuoso classical works of the early 1920s. Through a selection of more than fifty works at each venue, the presentation will examine the artist's stylistic experiments and techniques in this roughly thirty-year period, which begins and ends in a classical mode and encompasses the radical innovations of Cubism and collage. The show will demonstrate how drawing served as an essential means of invention and discovery in Picasso's multifaceted art, while its centrality in his vast oeuvre connects him deeply with the grand tradition of European masters.