Picasso Catalogue and Pocketbook

Publication and last remaining archival pocketbook from Je suis le cahier, 1986.

Essays

Picasso at Pace

A Timeline

On the occasion of (opens in a new window) Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks, on view at our New York gallery through December 22, 2023, we’re presenting a timeline of our solo exhibitions of Pablo Picasso. Organized with the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Madrid (FABA), the exhibition offers an intimate view of the ways in which Picasso worked by showcasing 14 never before exhibited sketchbooks, tracing the evolution of his ideas into plans for his compositions across painting and sculpture.

30 Picasso shows to date

37 years since the original Je suis le cahier exhibition

15 institutions that hosted the original Je suis le cahier exhibition

14 sketchbooks on view today

Culminating with 14 Sketchbooks, the following timeline captures eight solo shows since 1981.
All images © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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Installation views of Picasso: The Avignon Paintings, 1981.

Picasso 1981 Press Release

Press release from Picasso: The Avignon Paintings, 1981.

1981

Picasso: The Avignon Paintings
This 1981 exhibition at Pace’s 57th Street gallery in New York marked the first US presentation of Picasso’s last paintings—the Avignon paintings. Named for two exhibitions at the Palace of Popes in Avignon held in 1970 and 1973, respectively, these paintings draw upon the models, lovers, bullfighters, and mythological characters from the artist’s earlier bodies of work. This exhibition turned the tide of reception for Picasso’s late work and resulted in a critical re-appraisal of his practice — feeding into the birth of Expressionist painting in the 1980s with artists like Julian Schnabel.
Picasso produced his Avignon paintings in a period of intense isolation, creating, as critic James R. Mellow wrote in an essay for the exhibition’s publication, “an imaginary society in whose picaresque adventures he involved himself from one day to the next."
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Installation views of Picasso: The Avignon Paintings, 1981.

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Installation views of Picasso: The Avignon Paintings, 1981.

The Sculptures of Picasso Poster

Poster of The Sculpture of Picasso, 1982.

1982

The Sculpture of Picasso
This comprehensive survey of sculpture by Picasso featured more than 100 works—including early modeled sculptures, Cubist constructions, and bronzes cast from found objects—and was complemented by (opens in a new window) an illustrated catalogue with an essay by art historian and curator Robert Rosenblum. These sculptures were little known and rarely seen at that time.
Picasso Opening Party in 1982

Arne Glimcher, Paloma Picasso, Rafael Lopez-Cambil, and David Wolper for the opening of “Sculpture of Picasso” exhibit in 1982.

Picasso Opening Party in 1982

David Wolper and guest, Claude Picasso, Sydney Picasso, and Arne Glimcher for the opening of “Sculpture of Picasso” exhibit in 1982.

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Installation views of The Sculpture of Picasso, 1982.

Mounted just nine years after Picasso’s death in 1973, the show sheds light on the significance of the artist’s sculptural practice through its scope and depth.
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1986

Je suis le cahier—The Sketchbooks of Picasso
Je Suis le Cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso was a landmark exhibition organized by Arne and Marc Glimcher at the gallery’s East 57th Street space in 1986. The first exhibition to introduce Picasso’s sketchbooks to the world, Je Suis le Cahier traveled to numerous art institutions internationally following its run at Pace, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, and the Kunsthaus Zurich.
Picasso 1986 Publication

Je suis le cahier, Pace Publishing, 1986.

Pace and Atlantic Monthly Press published (opens in a new window) a catalogue—edited by Arne and Marc Glimcher—devoted to the exhibition, and this book remains a key resource on the artist. Nearly 40 years later, Pace is presenting Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks in New York.

Viewing these intimate records of genius at first hand, when they were exhibited at the Pace Gallery last spring, was like spying on the evolution of a visual language that helped shape the twentieth century...

Calvin Tomkins, The New Yorker, 1986

Picasso announcement card, 1995

Front of exhibition card for Picasso and Drawing, 1995.

1995

Picasso and Drawing
Bringing together some 100 works on paper and canvas, this 1995 exhibition surveyed Picasso’s draftsmanship from the early 1900s through 1970. Focusing on the ways that Picasso used drawing as a means to experiment with and reinvent form, Picasso and Drawing examined various subjects—figures, nudes, and still-lifes—and the different styles and mediums in which they were rendered over the course of the artist’s life and career.
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Installation view of Pablo Picasso: Works from the Estate and Selected Loans.

1998

Pablo Picasso: Works from the Estate and Selected Loans
This 1998 exhibition in Los Angeles convened some 30 artworks—including paintings and works on paper—created by Picasso between 1902 and 1971. In the Los Angeles Times, critic David Pagel noted that the show of lesser-known and rarely seen works shed light on the artist’s experimentations and innovations beyond his most ubiquitous and iconic compositions.
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Installation view of Pablo Picasso: Works from the Estate and Selected Loans.

Picasso Exhibition Card 1998

Inside of announcement card for Pablo Picasso: Works from the Estate and Selected Loans, 1998.

In love with potential, Picasso is an artist of beginnings, not ends.

David Pagel, The Los Angeles Times, 1998

Picasso & Jacqueline Front of 2014 Card

Front of 2014 announcement card.

2014

Picasso & Jacqueline
This 2014 exhibition—presented across Pace’s Chelsea and Midtown galleries in New York—convened nearly 140 works created by Picasso in the last two decades of his life, a period in which he lived with his muse and wife Jacqueline Roque. Tracing the transformation of Picasso’s style exclusively through his portraits of Jacqueline, his last and perhaps greatest love, Picasso & Jacqueline featured paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and ceramics.
WSJ Article by Carol Kino on 2014 Pace Show

Feature of Picasso & Jacqueline in WSJ, 2014.

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Feature of Picasso & Jacqueline in WSJ, 2014.

Many artworks from the Picasso family and Roque’s estate were shown publicly for the first time as part of this presentation, and the exhibition was complemented by (opens in a new window) a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by art historian Jonathan Fineberg, art historian and critic Barbara Rose, and curator Daniel Leers.
Picasso 2014 Book

Picasso & Jacqueline, 2014.

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Installation view of Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern, 2020.

2020

Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern
The first-ever exhibition devoted to Picasso to be presented in Palo Alto, Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern highlighted Picasso’s key breakthrough moments, which catalyzed a number of artistic movements and styles of the modern era. Tracing the artist’s practice from the late 1890s to the early 1970s, the show featured 35 masterpieces in a range of media—paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and ceramics—from each stage of Picasso’s prolific career, including his early Blue Period, reinterpretations of African and Oceanic forms, groundbreaking invention of Cubism, and experimentation with Surrealism and early Neo-Expressionism.
Seeing Picasso Publication

Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern, Pace Publishing, 2020.

The presentation was accompanied by a digital audio-visual tour led by art historian Alexander Nemerov as well as (opens in a new window) a fully illustrated catalogue.
Picasso Exhibition Card 2023 Front

Inside of announcement card for Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks

2023

Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks
Pace’s 2023 presentation of Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks in New York marks the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death. Each of the sketchbooks in the show is connected to well-known bodies of work by the artist, from his youthful experimentations in Spain and France around 1900 through the revolutionary developments of his time in Paris and his final years in the South of France. Exhibited alongside related ceramics, paintings, photographs, and archival materials, the sketchbooks illuminate Picasso’s approach for many of his major works.
The presentation is contextualized by a rich body of research about the events of Picasso’s life, assembled by curatorial advisors and Picasso experts Marilyn McCully and Michael Raeburn and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. 14 Sketchbooks is accompanied by a new catalogue from Pace Publishing, available for purchase online and on-site at the gallery.
  • Essays — Picasso at Pace: A Timeline, Nov 16, 2023