AMFA: Path to Abstraction: Picasso, Braque and Cubism’s Impact on Modern Art

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts showcases two paintings by the creators of Cubism. On loan from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Pablo Picasso’s Fan, Salt Box, Melon (1909) and Georges Braque’s Guitar and Bottle of Marc on a Table (1930) are in intimate conversation with rarely seen gems from the AMFA Foundation Collection.

Between 1908 and 1914, Picasso and Braque made experimental chess moves against each other as they worked to undo traditional painting’s illusionistic “window on the world.” Cubism did not end there, however. It ushered in a geometric language that spread beyond France and inspired modern art movements around the world.

Early examples in this exhibition from the AMFA Foundation’s celebrated drawings collection include line drawings by Spanish painter Juan Gris, who quickly adopted the Cubist style; a buoyant blue landscape by Jean Metzinger; Georges Valmier’s colorful collage; and a bold charcoal drawing by Jeanne Rij-Rousseau.

Works by American artists Blanche Lazzell and Abraham Walkowitz lay bare their process for abstracting recognizable forms.

Pablo Picasso (Málaga, Spain, 1881 – 1973, Mougins, France), Fan, Salt Box, Melon, 1909, oil on canvas, framed: 39 1/2 x 32 7 /8 x 2 7 /8 in., unframed: 32 x 25 1/4 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1969.22 © Estate of Pablo Picasso/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.