Audio Photo Essay
Inside Houston's highly-anticipated Picasso show: Expert delves deep to give exclusive insights
Feb 21, 2013 | 1:04 pm
As far as art exhibitions go, the most profound are rooted in a simple idea. Picasso Black and Whiteat the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston fits that bill.
___ Picasso in 1904 was living poorly in Montmartre, a suburb north of Paris, in an apartment lacking heat and plumbing. Consider the oeuvres of Picasso's Blue Period [http: /www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp]: They are somber, serious, somewhat melancholic. But they all have a compassion for the working class, a respect for those making a living through everyday manual labor. More than just an homage to this sect of Parisian society, Picasso shows knowledge of the history of art. Woman Ironing nods to El Greco, an artist he studied while visiting the galleries of the Museo Nacional Del Prado [https://www.museodelprado.es].
Photo courtesy of © 2013 Estate of Pablo Picasso Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
___ Picasso in 1904 was living poorly in Montmartre, a suburb north of Paris, in an apartment lacking heat and plumbing. Consider the oeuvres of Picasso's Blue Period [https: /www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp]: They are somber, serious, somewhat melancholic. But they all have a compassion for the working class, a respect for those making a living through everyday manual labor. More than just an homage to this sect of Parisian society, Picasso shows knowledge of the history of art. Woman Ironing nods to El Greco, an artist he studied while visiting the galleries of the Museo Nacional Del Prado [https://www.museodelprado.es].
Pablo Picasso, Woman Ironing, Bateau-Lavoir, Paris, spring 1904, oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, New York