TThhee ssccuullppttuurree ooff PPiiccaassssoo RRoonnaalldd PPeennrroossee,, cchhrroonnoollooggyy bbyy AAlliicciiaa LLeegggg Author Penrose, Roland, Sir Date 1967 Publisher The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1905 The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists. MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art 232 pages; 260 illustrations $15.00 THE SCULPTUREO F PICASSO by Roland Penrose The text and illustrations of this book offer the most comprehensive account ever published of Picasso's sculpture. Though the number of these works is only a fraction of his prodigious output in painting, Picasso has produced sculpture from 1901 to the present, and at some periods of his life his preoccupation with this medium has been paramount. His greatness as a sculptor has long been recognized, but the true signifi cance of this art within his total creative achieve ment could not be revealed until after his eighty- fifth birthday, when for the first time he allowed a full-scale retrospective of his sculpture—for the most part still in his possession—to be shown, first in Paris, later in London, and finally at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This publication is issued in conjunction with the latter exhibition. Its 260 gravure illus trations reproduce virtually all Picasso's exist ing sculptural oeuvre, and the text is by Picasso's friend and biographer, Roland Penrose, who selected the works for the London and New York shows. As Sir Roland makes clear, there is not "any serious division between Picasso the sculptor and Picasso the painter. On the contrary, throughout the great diversity of his work it is noticeable how closely knit are all forms of expression and in particular the two major arts in question. It is impossible to consider one without the other." Sir Roland accord ingly discusses not only the actual sculpture of Picasso but also other works which demonstrate the artist's concern with sculptural problems, even during periods when he was creating little if anything in three dimensions. The author suggests that Picasso's sculpture is deeply rooted in the creativity of primitive man, with its emo tional power, its occasional savagery, its sym bolism, and its metamorphic magic. Picasso, he believes, has "had the audacity to find his way back to the essentials of art by rediscovering its source. In sculpture ... he is able to get even (continued on back flap) THE SCULPTURE OF PICASSO frontispiece: Glass of Absinth. 1914. Painted bronze with silver spoon, 8 /i inches high. The Museum of Mod ern Art, New York, gift of Mrs. Bertram Smith s, ROLAND PENROSE THE SCULPTUREO F PICASSO CHRONOLOGY BY ALICIA LEGG THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK TRUSTEES OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART DAVID ROCKEFELLER RENE D'HARNONCOURT CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD MRS. C. DOUGLAS DILLON HENRY ALLEN MOE MRS. EDSEL B. FORD WILLIAM S. PALEY MRS. SIMON GUGGENHEIM* JOHN HAY WHITNEY WALLACE K. HARRISON VICE CHAIRMEN MRS. WALTER HOCHSCHILD JAMES W. HUSTED* MRS. BLISS PARKINSON PRESIDENT PHILIP JOHNSON MRS. ALBERT D. LASKER JAMES THRALL SOBY JOHN L. LOEB RALPH F. COLIN RANALD H. MACDONALD* GARDNER COWLES VICE PRESIDENTS MRS. G. MACCULLOCH MILLER* MRS. CHARLES S. PAYSON WILLARD C. BUTCHER GIFFORD PHILLIPS TREASURER MRS. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 3RD WALTER BAREISS NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER ROBERT R. BARKER MRS. WOLFGANG SCHOENBORN ALFRED H. BARR, JR. MRS. BERTRAM SMITH MRS. ROBERT WOODS BLISS* MRS. DONALD B. STRAUS WILLIAM A. M. BURDEN EDWARD M. M. WARBURG* IVAN CHERMAYEFF MONROE WHEELER* MRS. W. MURRAY CRANE* JOHN DE MENIL *HONORARY TRUSTEE ©COPYRIGHT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, 1967 11 WEST 53 STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 100 19 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUE CARD NUMBER 67-29395 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD It does not seem to picasso himself, he says, that the elements of his art have altered from period to period. Whatever means of expression his subject has called for, he has unhesitatingly adopted. His production is characterized on the one hand by maximum variability, on the other by unity and consistency. This has become apparent in exhibition after exhibition of his painting. But until the great retrospective Hommage a Pablo Picasso was organized in Paris to honor the artist in the 85th year of his life, there had been no comprehensive showing of Picasso's sculpture, for the simple reason that he had kept so much of it for his own enjoyment and took no interest in exhibiting it. First and foremost, therefore, the Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art acknowledge their indebtedness to Picasso himself for his generous loans, most of which will be seen for the first time on this side of the Atlantic in the present exhibition. This is based essentially on the sculpture section of the Paris retrospective assembled by Jean Leymarie in 1966. Like the show of Picasso's sculpture sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain at the Tate Gallery in London in the summer of 1967, it has been directed by Sir Roland Penrose, who also wrote the penetrating interpretive essay for this publication. Special thanks are due to Andre Malraux, Ministre d'Etat charge des Affaires Culturelles, and to the Association Fran^aise d'Action Artistique for its sponsorship. We have also bene fited throughout by the wholehearted cooperation of Gabriel White and, in particular, Joanna Drew of the Arts Council for assisting in innumerable details of organization and facilitating the photography of many of the works. We are especially grateful to all the museums and private collectors who have graciously participated in our undertaking and whose names are listed below. No examination of Picasso is possible without reference to the years of study of his work by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., former Director of Collections at The Museum of Modern Art, cul-