The eyes are all askew, one looking up, the other looking down. Two noses jut out, one frontal on a full face, the other in profile, maybe gazing into a mirror. Oversize hands and feet, often missing fingers and toes, are almost bestial looking. The artist is Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), of course, painting and repainting his constantly evolving visions.

Picasso took it upon himself to create and then redo traditional representations of reality; he recorded his findings on paper, canvas, and ceramics, using wire and wood to create sculpture—often combining whatever creative materials he could find. Throughout the 20th century, the world has been trying to figure out exactly what his often bizarre figures are all about.

Now it’s your turn. Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris is on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond through May 15, 2011. The exhibit offers a chronological survey of his works and explores how they mirror key events in his life.

The holdings of the Musée Picasso in Paris range from 1901 through 1972. The art was given to the French government by his heirs in lieu of paying estate taxes upon his death—enough to fill a museum! The Musée Picasso has released nearly 200 paintings from its collection to travel to museums worldwide. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is the only East Coast venue to display the landmark exhibit, which reveals Picasso’s unique ability to deconstruct our customary concepts of reality and then put them back together, after adding his own vision.

Two different concepts of Cubism are represented in the exhibit. Analytical Cubism begins with a recognizable subject that becomes dissected, dissolved, or fragmented. Consider the space voids in the bronze Head of A Woman (Fernande), 1909, the artist’s first mistress, or Le Sacré-Coeur, 1909-1910, an early venture into the new spatial geometry. Synthetic Cubism, on the other hand, introduces a new playful vocabulary of ideas and materials added to already familiar forms. It often makes use of alternative materials to create assemblages or what later artists called “ready mades.” Head of a Bull, 1942, is the consummate ready made; it consists of a bicycle seat and a set of handlebars; these two simple objects, deftly assembled, are an example of Picasso’s creative imagination. The question is, is it sculpture? It is most certainly an assemblage.  

The exhibition constitutes a survey of the prolific artist’s career. There are examples from Picasso’s Blue Period—impoverished, elongated, angular figures, all in monotone blue, expressing his depression over his close friend Carlos Casagemas’ suicide in Paris in 1901. Picasso painted his Barcelona amigo lying in his coffin. Shortly after, until 1906, he painted Iberian, sculpturesque figures, harlequins, and nude boys set against a rose, neutral beige, and brown background. The somber figures as in The Two Brothers, 1906, convey a sense of isolation. Self-Portrait, 1906, is painted in rosy tones, suggesting an Iberian mask influence.

Cubism arrived in all its glory with the appearance of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Museum of Modern Art) in 1907. It took 809 studies and 9 months of actual work on the canvas to complete it. Several studies for Les Demoiselles are found in the VMFA exhibition. By 1920, Picasso’s work had become representational again, responding to the influence of photography and a linear approach to drawings; he sketched favorite colleagues such as Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky.

The Iberian influence and Picasso’s interest in classical antiquity re-appeared when he used light and dark to emphasize the volume of his subjects. He continued to favor the human figure, using himself in his studio with models and mistresses as subjects, as well as bathers, nudes, and acrobats and the bull and the bullfight for his experiments.  He dared to juxtapose geometric shapes with small details that bring the human figure to life. Backgrounds are mostly indistinct and the figures are wearing the timeless clothing of antiquity. Women Running on the Beach, 1922, is an example of his return to classicism.

Picasso reacted violently to the Spanish Civil War in 1937 with stylized, distorted human images in the Guernica (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) that evoke profound emotion and terror in the viewer. Several dated studies and photographs of Guernica in various states of completion are on view in a special VMFA gallery. Picasso also copied the Old Masters, such as Rubens, Velasquez, Goya, El Greco, and David.

Massacre in Korea, 1951, Picasso’s statement against American involvement in the Korean War, pits good against evil as four helpless, pregnant, nude women and their four nude children face a firing squad of ferocious, robot-like figures.

Pablo Picasso had five mistresses, two wives, and four children. All are recorded in paintings that reflect his love, but also his frustration with those relationships. While Reading, 1932, with its benign, rounded shapes, reflects his happiness with Marie-Thérèse Walter, angry portraits of his mistress Dora Maar done in the 1930s are in stark contrast. These etchings, aquatints, and major oils reflect a major participation in the Surrealist movement.
He lived his last years at La Californie, his elegant French Riviera villa, painting many harmonious scenes of its rooms and gardens. He continued to be prolific, sometimes painting three or four canvases a day. It is said that he created 50,000 works during his lifetime. He considered himself to be the Rembrandt of modern art.

See Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris through May 15, 2011 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. Timed tickets are available by telephoning 804.340.1405 or accessing www.vmfa.museum.

Ginger Levit is a private art dealer, specializing in French and American paintings. She also writes about art, antiques, and travel for several publications. Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .