Curated views on Picasso: Painting the Blue Period

On view now, Picasso: Painting the Blue Period is Canada’s first exhibition to spotlight the famed modernist master’s early works from 1901 to 1904. Together with The Phillips Collection, the AGO embarked on a seven-year project to glean new information about the three Blue Period paintings in their respective collections: The Blue Room (Paris, 1901; The Phillips Collection), Crouching Beggarwoman (Barcelona, 1902; Art Gallery of Ontario), and The Soup (Barcelona, 1903; Art Gallery of Ontario). With these findings, the AGO is able to present Picasso again – under a new lens – since its last Picasso exhibition in 1964. Kenneth Brummel, Associate Curator, Modern Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, , says his most memorable moment during the planning of Picasso: Painting the Blue Period was his sudden realization that Picasso was citing El Greco’s Penitent Magdalen with the Cross (circa 1585-90; Museu del Cau Ferrat, Sitges, Spain) when painting Crouching Beggarwoman.

“Reviewing the inventory of the collection of the Museu del Cau Ferrat while planning a research trip to Barcelona in 2018, I noticed the superficial similarities between the compact silhouettes and bowed heads of Picasso’s beggarwoman and El Greco’s Magdalen,” explains Brummel.  “It then dawned on me that the right arm of El Greco’s Magdalen has the same pose as the right arm Picasso initially painted but then covered with the shawl in the AGO’s picture. Tying the surface composition and underlying forms of our painting to the Cau Ferrat’s famous El Greco has enabled me to argue that Picasso with the AGO’s painting positioned himself as Spain’s next leading painter both in Barcelona and in Paris, where he exhibited Crouching Beggarwoman at the Galerie Berthe Weill in November-December 1902.” 

Brummel wanted to showcase not only Picasso’s early works and the hidden layers underneath them, but also other works by artists who influenced the young painter before and during the Blue Period. The rooms invite people to look carefully at how Picasso interpreted works by other artists. 

One aspect of the exhibition Brummel enjoys the most is the sightline from the F.P. Wood Gallery. “I really enjoy the sightline to the AGO’s Crouching Beggarwoman from the F.P. Wood Gallery, where The Phillips Collection’s The Blue Room is juxtaposed with Picasso’s other 1901 nudes as well as works by Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas,” said Brummel. “Seeing works such as Woman in a Bathrobe (Paris, 1901; Private Collection, USA) and Woman with Necklace (Paris, 1901; The Sam and Ayala Zacks Collection in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, on permanent loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario) as they walk from The Blue Room toward the AGO’s 1902 masterwork, viewers visually experience Picasso’s gradual repudiation of the marketable depictions of Paris’ demimonde that he made for his exhibition at the Galerie Vollard in summer 1901 as he shifted toward the more dignified and iconic representations of downtrodden women that he began to realize in late 1901 and 1902.  This sightline succinctly summarizes our exhibition’s thesis about Picasso’s shifting attitude toward women at the beginning of the Blue Period.”

Want to learn more about the makings of this exhibition and the cross-border, seven-year research project between the AGO and The Phillips Collection? In partnership with the Council for Canadian American Relations and Embassy of Canada, watch the video below by The National Arts Club featuring a conversation between Gary Tinterow, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dr. Susan Behrends Frank, Curator, The Phillips Collection, and Kenneth Brummel, Associate Curator, Modern Art, Art Gallery of Ontario.

Picasso: Painting the Blue Period is on view now until January 16, 2022. Curated by Kenneth Brummel and Dr. Susan Behrends Frank, Picasso: Painting the Blue Period is co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC with the exceptional support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris