The Nasher Museum of Art

August 20, 2009 - January 3, 2010.

The Nasher Museum presents a groundbreaking exhibition examining Pablo Picasso's lifelong relationship with writers and the many ways in which language affected his work. "Picasso and the Allure of Language" comprises some 60 works in all media by Picasso, as well as select examples by fellow artist Georges Braque, and photographs, letters, manuscripts and book projects by a diverse group of artists and writers. Together, these works illuminate Picasso's deep and multidimensional interest in writing and language, and challenge the notion of what have been considered "highlights" of his lifetime of work.

The exhibition is drawn primarily from the Yale University Art Gallery and the renowned Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, in Dallas, Texas, from which two sculptures are on loan. The works span the years from 1900, when Picasso was 19 years old, to 1969, just four years before his death at the age of 91.

"Picasso and the Allure of Language" was organized by the Yale University Art Gallery with the support of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The exhibition is made possible by an endowment created with a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional endowment support provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Ketcham Family Memorial Fund; George and Schatzie Lee Fund; Carol and Sol LeWitt Fund; Leah G. and Allan C. Rabinowitz, Yale College Class of 1954, Fund; and Edward Byron Smith, Jr., Family Fund.

At the Nasher Museum, major support for the exhibition is provided by Marilyn M. Arthur, the E. T. Rollins Jr. & Frances P. Rollins Foundation, David A. Lamond, Duke Medical Center, Duke University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program, Drs. Victor S. and Lenore B. Behar, Jaclyn, Nelson and Kelly Braddy T'99, Tom and Larry Hines and Isobel Craven Drill, and Stefanie and Douglas Kahn. Additional support is provided by Drs. Anne Micheaux and Onye Akwari, Laura S. Ladd and Diane Evia-Lanevi and Ingemar Lanevi (as of June 12, 2009).

Official Hispanic Media Sponsor: Univision 40

IMAGE: Plate III from Michel Leiris's "balzacs en bas de casse et picassos sans majuscule." Published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1957. Transfer lithograph, 13 ½ x 10 ¼ inches. Yale University Art Gallery, The Ernest C. Steefel Collection of Graphic Art, Gift of Ernest C. Steefel. © 2008 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York