Xpo Center Bruges is presenting over 300 graphic works that Picasso created between 1930 and 1970.
Each engraving or lithograph is an original work, created by the artist personally.
Along with Münster, Bruges holds the largest collection of engravings and lithographs in Northern Europe.
Moreover Xpo Center Bruges is presenting exceptional ceramics.
Picasso is one of the most exciting and important artists of the 20th century.
He was considered a leader both for his innovative style and ability to create as well as for his political opinions.
Painter, drawer, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramist, Picasso was able to create art using all types of materials. It is thought that he created close to 50,000 works of art in total, of which 30,000 graphic works of art and almost 3,000 ceramic pieces
A WALK THROUGH THE COLOURFUL LIFE OF THE ARTIST
A chronological trajectory, with a number of themed sections, guides the visitor through the highpoints in the life and work of the master. The different rooms – sometimes intimate, sometimes light and spacious – exude an atmosphere of calm, offering optimum enjoyment to our viewing public. Information panels in three languages provide the necessary information. A film, made by the Belgian film-maker Paul Haesaert, shows Picasso at work in his studio in Vallauris.
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into a sun.
/ Pablo Picasso
WHY GRAPHIC WORK?
Graphic designs feature heavily in Picasso’s work.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, when digital distribution was still a far-off prospect, the creation of graphic works allowed artists to publicise their work more widely and to reach a broader audience. They were a way to express their talent and style.
From an artistic point of view, the value of a piece that has been reproduced in limited number of editions with numbers attributed to them is just as high as that of a unique piece. Every work of art bears the hallmarks of the master.
A LITHO, BUT ABOVE ALL A PICASSO
Picasso’s graphic works are of outstanding quality.
Picasso created his original graphic works with great care and in his own unique style: he would draw directly on the plaque or on the surface, sometimes using a hand or a finger, sometimes using finer or thicker brushes. His contemporary Miró had this to say on the subject: “this engraving has all the finesse of a painting!”
In his engravings one can see the development of Picasso as founder of the Cubist style and creator of his own Surrealism. The favourite themes of his paintings can all be found in the engravings: desire for love, admiration for African art, peace activist.
He experiments freely and is very taken with innovation and freedom of form. He applies himself to etching, aquatint, lithography, linocuts, monotyping… and in each case innovates the genre by applying the techniques unconventionally, and modifying them to suit his needs.
Technique is important, provided you practise it so much that you lose it.
/ Pablo Picasso
The collection at Xpo Center Bruges includes a number of graphic series which are considered the most representative and remarkable that Picasso produced.
A few examples:
– The photocopies of André Villers
– The engravings for Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle
– Ovid’s Metamorphoses
– Sketchbooks from La Californie
– Le goût du bonheur: erotic series
What reflects the human shape more accurately? The photographer, the mirror or the painter?
/ Pablo Picasso
The exhibition of Picasso’s works can be extended to include an exhibition of works by his contemporary, Joan Miró. The two exhibitions combined immerse the visitor in the zeitgeist of Cubism and Surrealism at the time of their greatest momentum.
Like Picasso, Miró is Spanish; however, the two artists met for the first time in Paris.
ONE OF THE GREATEST SURREALISTS
Famous for his lithographs, engravings and etchings, Miró is best known as one of the greatest Surrealists. In one period his work features simple geometrical shapes and lines, and later elements of the American art of the 1960s. His leaning towards minimalism makes him critical of extravagant consumerism and excess. He develops an extremely recognisable style involving striking fields of colour.
A LANGUAGE OF PAINTING THAT APPEALS TO CHILDREN
Through his recurring figures, stars and suns Miró attempts to escape the negatives of the world around him and create his own universe of hope.
His works reveal his love of the poetic and we recognise influences of the primitive and the child-like.
This is why children tend to feel very drawn to this master artist’s work.
