Picasso In Arkansas

Starting with a 1904 etching and ending with "imaginary portraits" done on corrugated cardboard in 1969, a new Pablo Picasso exhibition in Little Rock, Ark., represents more than 60 years of work by the giant of 20th century art.

"Pursuing Picasso" is on view through Sept. 3 at the Arkansas Arts Center. There are three segments: "Picasso in Paris," a series of 59 paintings, drawings and etchings by the artist and his contemporaries; 2ceramics designed or painted by Picasso, and his "imaginary portraits" on cardboard.

"The concept started out being what people were doing, what kind of art they were making when he first came to Paris," said Joseph Lampo, the arts center's deputy director of programming. "It went a lot of directions, and a lot of the ideas that are the basis of that came from Picasso."

The show opens with "The Artist and His Model," a 4-foot-by-6-foot painting of an artist, a model and a dog. The oil, done in rich greens, grays and yellows, was made in 1963 and is part of the collection of Warren and Harriet Stephens, who loaned many of the items on display to the arts center.

Picasso contemporaries whose works are featured in the show include Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse and Diego Rivera.

"Picasso in Paris" showcases landscapes and still lifes, and also has a section devoted to depictions of dancers and other performers. There are a few of Picasso's drawings of his mistresses, including "Francoise" and "Jacqueline en Mariee, de face 1." (Jacqueline became his wife in 1961.)

It also has an all-Picasso section with works on bulls and mythology, two of the artist's favorite subjects. One such painting, "Still Life With Red Bull's Head," is a mainstay of the Arkansas Arts Center. On loan from the estate of financier Jackson T. Stephens, the 1938 oil has been on view at the museum for years, said Nan Plummer, the museum's executive director.

The exhibition includes 66 ceramics done by Picasso and collaborators. Picasso began creating pottery works in 1946 after visiting the Madoura factory in Vallauris in southern France. His ceramics feature the imagery of bullfights, Spanish dancers and Don Quixote. The ceramics collection is from the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The arts center's exhibition ends with Picasso's imaginary portraits, on loan from the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art in Florida.

3In 1969, while living on the French Riviera, Picasso received a shipment of art supplies packed with large sheets of corrugated cardboard. He ended up making 29 gouache paintings on the cardboard. The paintings later were made into lithographs under Picasso's direction. All 29 in the series — which feature brightly colored images of William Shakespeare, Salvador Dali and others — are part of the show.

Perhaps the most famous piece on display is the artist's etching "Le Repas Frugal" ("The Frugal Repast"), done in 1904 in his Blue Period and reprinted in 1920. It shows an emaciated couple at a nearly empty dinner table.

Born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso went to Paris as a young man. He lived and worked in France until his death in 1973.