Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This special exhibition of Picasso at the Met just opened for member’s preview through April 25. It will open to the general public on April 27^th and run through August 1^st, 2010.
This exhibit features the museum’s entire collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics. Over 300 works detail the artist’s progress throughout the years. Each room of the exhibit focused on a different aspect of Picasso’s work. One of the first paintings you will see is the «Seated Harlequin». The next room highlights the Blue Period and contains a self portrait «Yo» and the eerie «Blind Man’s Meal». The Rose period is where you will see «The Actor». This is the huge painting facing you as you walk into the room. It is also the one that was recently damaged and ripped by a clumsy patron to the Met. Really, how do you do that? Does the Met just take the deed to your home in compensation? They have done incredible work repairing it, because you don’t even notice that there ever was any damage to the canvas. The audio guide describes how this huge canvas had another painting already on it that Picasso covered in gray to put his new painting on the other side. You’ll want to do the audio guide as it provided a lot of insight on the exhibit. Picasso’s technique shifts to Cubism in the next gallery. Then it is on to Paris where two decades of work chronicle the artist’s life. There are paintings of his wife, his child and his seventeen year old mistress. These are some of my favorite pieces of the collection. There are a bunch of ceramics in the next room and one that copies the theme of Manet’s «Luncheon on the Grass». The exhibit concludes with Picasso’s 347 Series. It was pretty graphic, like the Kama Sutra on an acid trip. This racy gallery probably isn’t the place for kids, so if you bring them here expect to have an awkward discussion explaining just what that man is doing to her.