Picasso: Drawing from Life

This exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago centers on Picasso’s works on paper, bringing into focus the artist’s life and art as it intersected with a network of artists, dealers, printers, family members, and lovers.

This year marks 50 years since the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1973 and the Art Institute of Chicago is joining hundreds of presentations worldwide in honoring the artist’s legacy.

Featuring over 60 works –drawings, prints, and illustrated books, along with a handful of paintings and a sculpture– the exhibition spans Picasso’s rich and varied 70-year career. Arranged chronologically, the presentation moves from the artist’s student years in Barcelona, Spain, to his formative and collaborative invention of Cubism in Paris in 1908 and on to his return to representation in the 1920s.

Picasso’s production exploded in the 1930s; fueled by his tumultuous personal life and the horrors of WWII, his imagery ranged from war-torn victims to predatory mythological creatures. His last two decades were marked by continued creative experimentation as Picasso, now personally and financially secure, largely retreated into his studio in the south of France.