The Picasso Landscapes exhibition, which is on display from February 11 through May 21, 2023, presents over 40 examples of landscapes from Picasso's career. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the artist's death, Picasso Landscapes examines how he used Cubism to explore growing industrialization and the natural world. Additionally, landscapes allowed Picasso to experiment with Cubism, which has received little art historical attention. The works range from 1896, when Picasso was only 15, to 1973. Click here to read more about the exhibition from the American Federation of Arts.

Online Resources

• Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Picasso Timeline, from the Musée national Picasso-Paris 
• All about Cubsim, from the Tate

Mint Museum Library Resources 

• Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí, from the Cleveland Museum of Art
• This exhibition analyzes the 71 years after the "September Revolution" in 1868, a period in Barcelona when industry and culture progressed rapidly. The authors relate the artists Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, and Dalí to history at the time. Many chapters discuss Picasso specifically and note many of the political themes in his work. The main chapters are titled Rebirth: The Catalan Renaixença; Modernisme: Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Arts; Modernisme: The Quatre Gats; Modernisme: Art and Society; Modernisme: Architecture and Design; Noucentisme and the Classical Revival; The Age of the Avant-Garde; Avant-Gardes: The Rational City; and Avant-Gardes and Civil War. On page 236 Jordi Falgàs starts a subchapter titled "Picasso in Gósol: Savoring the Secrets of the Mysterious Land" that charts some of his early landscape paintings.
• Cubism, by Edward F. Fry
• Fry's analysis is the most straight forward analysis of Cubism on this bibliography. He begins by charting the rapid history of Cubism in his introduction and explains "Cubism as a stylistic and historical phenomenon" on page 36. Following this are the writings of Cubists and other theorists alongside commentary from Fry. Notable to the Mint's exhibition are commentaries about Picasso by Gertrude Stein (page 55) and a statement from Picasso to Marius de Zayas on page 165. 
• Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, from the Museum of Modern Art
• While Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) are not in the current Mint exhibition, this work has been a highlight of Picasso's career and is one of his most well known pieces. Around the time Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, modernism was adapting from its roots in impressionism and symbolism. The authors explain that Picasso's work on this piece was an investigation into his psyche and the "magic" of African art. In various chapters, the authors discuss the use of cubism in the work, public reception, the chronology of the piece, and so on. Since this work was created immediately before Picasso turned to landscape, it provides a starting point for understanding his work.
• It is important to note that much of Picasso's inspiration from various non-European groups is reflective of primitivism. Picasso and other artists at the time appropriated aspects of African art because they believed the "uncivilized" nature led to a better expression of spirituality. This ideology is incredibly harmful and has been noted in many analyses of Picasso's work.
• Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, from the Museum of Modern Art
• This exhibition catalogue provides an expansive look into Picasso's work by time period. Most of this book is images of his work and not explanation, but you can see many examples of landscapes that are in the Mint's exhibition. See, for example, Le réservoir (1909) on page 131, Les baigneuses (1918) on page 205, or La baie de Cannes (1958) on page 434.
• Picasso and the Cubists, from the Lamplight Collection of Modern Art
• This resource is a simple overview of when cubism began, how Post-Impressionism and Fauvism were main precursors, how Picasso influenced Cubism's trajectory, the influence of Georges Braque, and a few other notable Cubists. Additionally, there are explanations of different types of Cubism, including Analytical Cubism, Facet Cubism, collages, and Synthetic Cubism. There are also profiles on eighteen artists after the plates.
• Picasso & Things, from the Cleveland Museum of Art
• This resource is an exhibition catalogue similar to the one above, but it differs in that it provides more interpretation than simple chronological history. As described in the first essay, the exhibition was called "Picasso & Things" because of how his still lives represent 'things', as opposed to his large numbers of figurative works. While this focus on things doesn't necessarily align with the theme of the Mint's exhibition, it provides another way of interpreting and understanding Picasso's work. Essays discuss food in Picasso's writing, still life's connections to cubism, how cubism came to be, his work during the war years, and his art right before his death.
• Picasso (Blue and Rose Periods), by Denys Sutton and Paolo Lecaldano
• Picasso's Blue Period, which was between 1901 and 1904, can be identified by almost monochromatic uses of blue and a melancholic aura. On the other hand, his Rose Period, between 1904 and 1906, uses reds and pinks in a more energized manner. At this point, his style was still developing and these periods were only a single moment in his career. The authors provide an introduction and a brief critical history before the plates that reveal those periods. Few paintings in the Mint exhibition are from these periods, but it is another facet of understanding how Picasso landscapes emerged. 

___________________________

Created by RJ Maupin, Library Intern