The sculpture of Picasso

241 Pages·2016·42.42 MB·English

by  Penrose, Roland, Sir

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Author
Penrose, Roland, Sir
Date
1967
Publisher
The Museum of Modern Art
Exhibition URL
www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1905
The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history—
from our founding in 1929 to the present—is
available online. It includes exhibition catalogues,
primary documents, installation views, and an
index of participating artists.
MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art

232 pages; 260 illustrations $15.00
THE SCULPTUREO F
PICASSO
by Roland Penrose
The text and illustrations of this book offer the
most comprehensive account ever published of
Picasso's sculpture. Though the number of these
works is only a fraction of his prodigious output
in painting, Picasso has produced sculpture
from 1901 to the present, and at some periods
of his life his preoccupation with this medium
has been paramount. His greatness as a sculptor
has long been recognized, but the true signifi
cance of this art within his total creative achieve
ment could not be revealed until after his eighty-
fifth birthday, when for the first time he allowed
a full-scale retrospective of his sculpture—for the
most part still in his possession—to be shown,
first in Paris, later in London, and finally at
The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
This publication is issued in conjunction
with the latter exhibition. Its 260 gravure illus
trations reproduce virtually all Picasso's exist
ing sculptural oeuvre, and the text is by Picasso's
friend and biographer, Roland Penrose, who
selected the works for the London and New
York shows.
As Sir Roland makes clear, there is not "any
serious division between Picasso the sculptor
and Picasso the painter. On the contrary,
throughout the great diversity of his work it is
noticeable how closely knit are all forms of
expression and in particular the two major
arts in question. It is impossible to consider
one without the other." Sir Roland accord
ingly discusses not only the actual sculpture of
Picasso but also other works which demonstrate
the artist's concern with sculptural problems,
even during periods when he was creating little
if anything in three dimensions. The author
suggests that Picasso's sculpture is deeply rooted
in the creativity of primitive man, with its emo
tional power, its occasional savagery, its sym
bolism, and its metamorphic magic. Picasso, he
believes, has "had the audacity to find his way
back to the essentials of art by rediscovering its
source. In sculpture ... he is able to get even
(continued on back flap)

THE SCULPTURE OF PICASSO
frontispiece: Glass of Absinth. 1914. Painted bronze
with silver spoon, 8 /i inches high. The Museum of Mod
ern Art, New York, gift of Mrs. Bertram Smith
s,
ROLAND PENROSE
THE SCULPTUREO F
PICASSO
CHRONOLOGY BY ALICIA LEGG
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
TRUSTEES OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
DAVID ROCKEFELLER RENE D'HARNONCOURT
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD MRS. C. DOUGLAS DILLON
HENRY ALLEN MOE MRS. EDSEL B. FORD
WILLIAM S. PALEY MRS. SIMON GUGGENHEIM*
JOHN HAY WHITNEY WALLACE K. HARRISON
VICE CHAIRMEN MRS. WALTER HOCHSCHILD
JAMES W. HUSTED*
MRS. BLISS PARKINSON
PRESIDENT PHILIP JOHNSON
MRS. ALBERT D. LASKER
JAMES THRALL SOBY
JOHN L. LOEB
RALPH F. COLIN
RANALD H. MACDONALD*
GARDNER COWLES
VICE PRESIDENTS MRS. G. MACCULLOCH MILLER*
MRS. CHARLES S. PAYSON
WILLARD C. BUTCHER
GIFFORD PHILLIPS
TREASURER
MRS. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 3RD
WALTER BAREISS
NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER
ROBERT R. BARKER
MRS. WOLFGANG SCHOENBORN
ALFRED H. BARR, JR.
MRS. BERTRAM SMITH
MRS. ROBERT WOODS BLISS*
MRS. DONALD B. STRAUS
WILLIAM A. M. BURDEN
EDWARD M. M. WARBURG*
IVAN CHERMAYEFF
MONROE WHEELER*
MRS. W. MURRAY CRANE*
JOHN DE MENIL *HONORARY TRUSTEE
©COPYRIGHT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, 1967
11 WEST 53 STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 100 19
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUE CARD NUMBER 67-29395
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
It does not seem to picasso himself, he says, that the elements of his art have altered from
period to period. Whatever means of expression his subject has called for, he has unhesitatingly
adopted. His production is characterized on the one hand by maximum variability, on the
other by unity and consistency. This has become apparent in exhibition after exhibition of his
painting. But until the great retrospective Hommage a Pablo Picasso was organized in Paris to
honor the artist in the 85th year of his life, there had been no comprehensive showing of
Picasso's sculpture, for the simple reason that he had kept so much of it for his own enjoyment
and took no interest in exhibiting it.
First and foremost, therefore, the Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art acknowledge
their indebtedness to Picasso himself for his generous loans, most of which will be seen for
the first time on this side of the Atlantic in the present exhibition. This is based essentially on
the sculpture section of the Paris retrospective assembled by Jean Leymarie in 1966. Like the
show of Picasso's sculpture sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain at the Tate Gallery
in London in the summer of 1967, it has been directed by Sir Roland Penrose, who also wrote
the penetrating interpretive essay for this publication.
Special thanks are due to Andre Malraux, Ministre d'Etat charge des Affaires Culturelles,
and to the Association Fran^aise d'Action Artistique for its sponsorship. We have also bene
fited throughout by the wholehearted cooperation of Gabriel White and, in particular, Joanna
Drew of the Arts Council for assisting in innumerable details of organization and facilitating
the photography of many of the works. We are especially grateful to all the museums and
private collectors who have graciously participated in our undertaking and whose names are
listed below.
No examination of Picasso is possible without reference to the years of study of his work
by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., former Director of Collections at The Museum of Modern Art, cul-