Last year, the show to see at the Nasher was "El Greco to Velazquez," featuring masterpieces by the two giants of Spanish art, and introducing us to fascinating works by their lesser-known contemporaries from the 16th and 17th centuries.
This year, the museum's featured exhibition brings us forward into the 20th century, to focus on perhaps the greatest of the modern masters, Picasso, his relationship with writers and literature, and how they influenced his art.
"Picasso and the Allure of Language" will be on display at the Nasher through Jan. 3.
The exhibition includes original works created by Picasso between 1900 and 1969, including paintings, sculpture, line drawings and writing.
The show is a partnership between Yale and Duke universities. Yale loaned more than 60 paintings, and the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection at the Dallas Nasher Sculpture Center loaned several Picasso sculptures.
An important and fascinating aspect of the exhibit is Picasso's friendship in Paris with the writer Gertrude Stein. The exhibit includes Picasso paintings originally owned by Gertrude and Leo Stein, as well as materials from the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas papers from the Yale library.
"'Picasso and the Allure of Language' focuses on Picasso's deep and interdisciplinary interest in writing and language, " said Kimerly Rorschach, the James H. and Mary D.B.T. Semans director of the Nasher Museum. "We can learn a lot from the intellectual and artistic exchanges between Picasso and some of the greatest thinkers of his day."
The exhibition was open to the public twice -- once at Yale University and this show at the Nasher Museum. For more information, go to www.nasher.duke.edu.
- Hours for the Picasso show, at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2001 Campus Drive through Jan. 3, are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For details, call 684-5135.
