C oming to auction for the very first time, this series of bronzes by Pablo Picasso (lots 134-142) are being offered by the Art Institute of Chicago, and were acquired under the Grant J. Pick Fund. Founded in 1879, the AIC is amongst the oldest art museums in the world. The museum holds some of the most important works in the canon of western art history from Seurat's Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. These bronzes were collected alongside the very best in art history.
My sculptures are plastic metaphors. It's the same principle as in painting. I've said that a painting shouldn't be trompe l'oeil…but…trompe l'ésprit. I'm out to fool the mind rather than the eye. And that goes for sculpture too.
Although sculpture was a medium Picasso had experimented with since the early 1900s, the artist kept much of his sculptural work private, incorporating his bronzes into his everyday life and home. This portion of his oeuvre began to gain recognition after the 1967 exhibition The Sculpture of Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art, and subsequently has been reassessed as one of the key aspects of his output. These nine playful and tactile bronzes of women are a wonderful insight into the mind of the artist and his creative process.
Lots 134 - 142
