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“Picasso is above all a draftsman. He is someone who thinks in terms of drawing, in terms of line. His drawing is revealed to be the core of his thinking.” —Christine Poggi

Closing on Friday, December 3, 2021 at Acquavella Galleries in New York is the extraordinary exhibition, Pablo Picasso: Seven Decades of Drawing, curated by Olivier Berggruen. However, if you’ve missed it, no need to fret – the exhibition is supported by a gorgeous 268 page catalog including essays by Berggruen and historian Christine Poggi. Additionally, our friends at Bower Blue produced this video tour of the exhibition, including discussions with Poggi and Berggruen.

From Acquavella Galleries:

Acquavella Galleries is pleased to present Seven Decades of Drawing, a survey of significant drawings by painter, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker, and ceramicist, Pablo Picasso. Exhibiting over 70 drawings spanning seven decades of the artist’s career, the exhibition includes works in an array of mediums including charcoal, crayon, colored pencil, collage, graphite, gouache, ink, pastel, and watercolor.

Drawing was the foundation of Picasso’s practice throughout the many stages of his stylistic development. The son of an art teacher, Picasso began to sketch at an early age; it is said that his first word was “piz,” short for “lápiz,” the Spanish word for pencil. He began his formal training at the age of seven, quickly mastering the techniques of classical draftsmanship.

Picasso’s drawings reflect the artist’s lifelong quest to innovate and experiment; they also demonstrate his virtuosic ability to switch between styles, techniques, and mediums. Guided by his intuition and innate understanding of line, in his drawings Picasso imaginatively experimented and pioneered the development of radical ideas, innovating new approaches to form and expression in the process.