Picasso/Rivera: Still Life and the Precedence of Form

A group of four paintings and one print explores the story of spirited rivalry and visual dialogue taking place between these artists in 1915.

A focused exhibition, Picasso/Rivera: Still Life and the Precedence of Form, explores the story of spirited rivalry between Picasso and Rivera through the lens of selected works, notably Picasso’s Still Life in a Landscape (1915) from the Meadows Museum’s collection, and Rivera’s Still Life with Gray Bowl (Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Austin), painted in the same year. Together with a key work by each artist generously loaned from the Columbus Museum of Art, this group of paintings outlines the visual dialogue taking place in 1915 between these two giants of modern art.

Beyond the rich anecdotes regarding the relationship of the two artists, this group of paintings provides an opportunity to find parallels as well as deviations between these canvases. In spite of limited wartime resources, 1914-15 proved to be a fecund era of creativity for both Picasso and Rivera.