Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation, and Change

Artforum
By Karen Butler

This exhibition will be the first in the US to take on the much-debated question of Picasso’s stylistic modality, particularly the ease with which cubism rubbed shoulders with neoclassicism in the artist’s work, both leading up to and following World War I. Bringing together some fifty works in a wide range of media, including painting, collage, works on paper, illustrated letters, stage decor, and costume design—spanning roughly 1912 to 1924—the Barnes Foundation proposes a rethinking of Picasso’s capacity to paint or draw one motif in several distinct manners, placing it in the context of the war as well as in relation to the contemporaneous output of his fellow cubists. With its accompanying catalogue of essays by Fraquelli, Kenneth Silver, Elizabeth Cowling, and Dominique H. Vasseur, this show will bring a new dimension to a transitional phase in the artist’s prolific career. Travels to the Columbus Museum of Art, OH, June 10–Sept. 11.