Major Picasso show coming to Richmond in February

RICHMOND

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be the only East Coast venue for a major exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s art.

“Picasso: Masterpieces From the Musee National Picasso, Paris” will be on view at the Richmond museum Feb. 19 through May 15.
 
Director Alex Nyerges, speaking on a video posted on YouTube, called it "the largest and most important exhibition in the history of the Virginia Museum."
 
He also said that the 176 works are from the Musee National Picasso in Paris, which has the world's " largest and most important collection" of Picasso's art.
 
Picasso was widely considered the most radical and influential artist of the 20th century.
 
The reason it's such an important collection is because the museum owns several thousand works from Picasso's own holdings, which were given to the French state after his death in 1973 at age 91.
 
The works are on a global tour because the Paris museum, in a 17th-century building, will be closed for renovations until 2012.
 
The show includes paintings, drawings, sculpture and works on paper spanning eight decades of his art and covers the Spanish artist's significant directions. Works headed for Richmond include his 1937 painting, "Portrait of Dora Maar," and bronze sculptures depicting another mistress, Marie-Therese Walter.
 
The exhibition will be shown at only two other museums in this country. It opens Friday at the Seattle Art Museum, where it will remain through Jan. 17. The other U.S. stop is the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 11 through Sept. 25.
 
Tickets to the Richmond show are $20 for adults and $16 for ages 7-17, students and ages 65 and older. Call (804) 340-1405.
 
Teresa Annas, (757) 446-2485 or teresa.annas@pilotonline.com