Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds

Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds was curated by Laurence Madeline and organized by the American Federation of the Arts, with the exceptional support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris. The installation at MMA featured twenty-seven works spanning the entirety of Picasso’s seventy-five-year career, along with historical film clips and photographs. Richly colored walls alluded to nature while grounding the exhibition with a serious tone. The dark colors also served to visually reduce the scale of the galleries, which, along with strategic artwork and archival material placement, offset the small number of artworks in the spacious gallery. Life-sized photographs of the artist gave visitors an indication of Picasso’s age and studio location when he created the paintings nearby. Large projections of historical footage became scenic elements that provided adjacent artwork a sense of place while wall-mounted monitors displayed more intimate films such as home movies and the newscast about his burial. Marking fifty years since the artist’s death, Picasso Landscapes was the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work to be presented in the state of Mississippi.