Review: Picasso season arrives in L.A. with two smashing museum shows
The L.A. museum market is in the spotlight this year with two major gallery shows: “Picasso: Passion,” opening Friday, and the long-awaited “Picasso: The Masters.” Both are free and in-house events that include an artist’s talk, drawing sessions and family fun.
The first will feature the artist’s works from the past 50 years, while the second will take a chronological look at the artist’s early- and mid-20th century art. The third, “The Masters,” will explore the artist’s career from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
An important question for anyone following this artist is how Picasso’s work and style changed over the years, which is exactly what the shows will show – through the ages.
These two shows are just the beginning of what promises to be a very busy summer for the L.A. arts community, with art shows and festivals all over town and an influx of new and interesting exhibits.
Let’s start with “Picasso: Passion.” It’s a free preview event, which features works from the past three decades of the artist’s work. The exhibition runs through June 20, so be sure to arrive early to see the collection.
“Picasso: Passion” will comprise more than 12,000 works, which will include drawings, photography, paintings, sculptures, installations, video art, books, drawings and photographs.
But the real star of the show is the exhibition’s curators, Richard Newborn, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Laguna Art Museum and Scott W. Shaw, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The two have worked closely together, sharing exhibits and workshops, and they are now co-artistic directors of the Painted Ladies, one of the world’s finest permanent museum exhibits, with more than 18,000 pieces of art from the permanent collection of the Laguna Art Museum.
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