Overview

Pablo Picasso was committed to depicting landscapes throughout his entire life. From his earliest days in art school until the year before his death, landscape remained the prime genre through which he mediated his perception of the world and which shaped his own creative evolution. Yet within Picasso’s vast oeuvre, landscapes have received the least scholarly attention. Landscape would serve as a catalyst for his formal experimentation, including early Cubism; as a field inwhich to investigate urban modernity; as an interface between humanity and nature; as a ground for direct sculptural intervention; as a space of personal withdrawal; as an inviting terrain for elegiac scenes; and as a territory of resistance and flight.

Landscapes offer the clearest lens for understanding Picasso’s attentiveness to his cultural milieu as well as to his ongoing engagement with art-historical traditions. Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds explores the depth of his engagement with landscape subjects along with his expansive approach to this traditional genre.

About the Editor

Laurence Madeline is Chief Curator for French National Heritage