Arnold Newman, 'Pablo Picasso' (1954)  © Image Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Cover Arnold Newman, 'Pablo Picasso' (1954) © Image Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario

The Art Gallery of Ontario has announced that it will present a major presentation on the Spanish master's most celebrated period

"Picasso: Painting the Blue Period" will be co-organised by the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.

It will mark the first exhibition in Canada to focus on this early chapter of the artist's career, during which Picasso was living in poverty and struggling to make a living from his art.

The exhibition will include some 70 artworks by Picasso, alongside a selection of pieces by other artists that the Spanish master would have studied during his formative blue period.

At this time, Picasso flitted between Paris and Barcelona, as he was haunted by the sudden death of his friend and closest compatriot Carles Casagemas.

His suicide served as a catalyst for a series of canvases that Picasso began soon after, which was characterised by its palette of melancholic blues, greys and greens.

Outcasts became the artist's favoured subjects during his blue period, as he depicted hungry children, street musicians, prostitutes and circus families.

"Picasso: Painting the Blue Period" came together after the Art Gallery of Ontario led a multi-year international research project on two paintings of the blue period.

Last February, X-ray images revealed that Picasso had painted "La Miséreuse accroupie," known in English as "The Crouching Woman," over another artist's landscape.

Researchers had previously discovered that the Spanish master's had similarly painted his early masterpiece, "The Blue Room," over a portrait of a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand.

"Picasso: Painting the Blue Period" will be on view from June 27 to September 20, 2020, at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

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