Ticket Presale Opens Today for Long-Awaited Picasso and Paper Exhibition

CLEVELAND (October 8, 2024)— The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) announces ticket information for its next major exhibition Picasso and Paper, on view December 8, 2024, through March 23, 2025, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery. Tickets go on sale for members on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, and for the general public on Thursday, October 10, 2024. The CMA recommends reserving tickets through its online platform by visiting the exhibition webpage. Tickets can also be reserved by phone at 216-421-7350 or on-site at one of the ticket desks.

Pablo Picasso’s tireless experimentation with and on paper is the subject of the groundbreaking exhibition Picasso and Paper, organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris. Showcasing nearly 300 works spanning his 80-year career, Picasso and Paper explores the artist’s diverse use of paper, a medium he used to challenge and transform the way we see art.

Originally scheduled to appear at the CMA in September 2020, this highly anticipated exhibition has been reconstituted with an exciting selection of additional works. Picasso and Paper will begin welcoming the public on December 8, 2024, through March 23, 2025, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery.

The exhibition’s highlights include Women at their Toilette (1937–38), an extraordinarily large collage (9 13/16 x 14 1/2 feet) of cut-and-pasted papers, exhibited for the first time in the United States; rarely seen Cubist collages; the artist’s private sketchbooks, including studies for his best-known paintings, including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; constructed paper guitars from the Cubist and Surrealist periods; prints that offer an intimate view of Picasso’s complex working process; and an array of works related to the artist’s most celebrated paintings and sculptural projects.

“The CMA is excited to finally bring Picasso and Paper to Cleveland, its only venue in North America,” said Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings. “Although Picasso’s name might most immediately bring to mind his paintings, paper was at the core of his experimentation throughout his entire life. Due to its rich chronological focus and its depth, this exhibition offers an opportunity for visitors to better understand Picasso and his contributions to art history, or for those already familiar to see him in an entirely new light.”

The exhibition presents these works on paper chronologically alongside a selection of closely related paintings and sculptures. The CMA’s La Vie (1903), from Picasso’s Blue Period, will be featured with preparatory drawings and other works on paper exploring corresponding themes. In the Cubist section, Picasso’s 1909 bronze Head of a Woman (Fernande) (Musée national Picasso-Paris) will be surrounded by a large group of related drawings. Seen together, these groupings highlight the connections that Picasso saw between media, his fascination with the materials that he worked with, and the integral role that paper played throughout his artistic practice. 

“Paper offered Picasso an intimate space in which he could not only respond to events in his personal life and in the world around him, but also carry out radical formal experimentation,” said Salsbury. “Picasso and Paper traces some of the most significant shifts in modern art through his artistic practice with rarely seen artworks from the most internationally significant holdings of his work.”

To reserve presale tickets for Picasso and Paper visit: clevelandart.org/exhibitions/picasso-and-paper

Member Preview Days

Members see it FIRST and for FREE! 

Members can view Picasso and Paper first on Member Preview Days, Thursday, December 5, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Friday, December 6, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 7, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Join today and reserve free tickets.

Ticket Pricing

Adults $22; seniors, students, and children ages 6–17 $15; children 5 and under and CMA members free. 

The CMA recommends reserving tickets through its online platform by visiting the exhibition webpage. Tickets can also be reserved by phone at 216-421-7350 or on-site at one of the ticket desks. 

Tickets are expected to book quickly and are not guaranteed. Your first choice of date and time may not be available, so please have other date and time options in mind when reserving tickets. Advance ticket sales are highly recommended.
 

Exhibition Catalogue

Picasso and Paper is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the Royal Academy of Arts. It features essays by distinguished Picasso scholars and leading authorities in various aspects of technical art history, including William H. Robinson, formerly of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Ann Dumas of the Royal Academy of Arts; Emilia Philippot of the Musée national Picasso-Paris; and Claustre Rafart Planas of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Specific aspects of Picasso’s engagement with paper are addressed by Christopher Lloyd, an expert on Picasso’s drawings; Stephen Coppel, curator of prints and drawings at the British Museum; Violette Andres, photography curator at the Musée national Picasso- Paris; Johan Popelard of the University of Paris; and Emmanuelle Hincelin, a paper conservator with scientific expertise in the types of paper Picasso used at key moments in his career.

Complementary Programming

Artists in the Atrium: Papermaking with the Morgan Conservatory

Saturday, December 14, 2024, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Ames Family Atrium

Free

Every third Saturday of each month, stop by the Ames Family Atrium between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to get a firsthand look at the process of making art. Each session provides the opportunity to engage and interact with a different Northeast Ohio maker during pop-up demonstrations and activities. See their work unfold and learn how artists create. Explore a related selection of authentic objects from the CMA’s Education Art Collection in a pop-up Art Up Close session. See, think, and wonder.    

Pipo Romero 

Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 7:30 p.m. 

Transformer Station

Ticketed

Coinciding with the exhibition Picasso and Paper, the CMA is thrilled to welcome Spanish guitarist Pipo Romero to Transformer Station for his Cleveland debut. A gifted composer and virtuoso acoustic guitarist from Cádiz, Spain, Romero has become a prominent figure in the acoustic guitar scene. His unique fusion of styles, called “Spanish Acoustic Finger Style,” has garnered praise from critics and journalists. His compositions blend folk, flamenco, Celtic, and classical melodies, creating an emotional and multicultural experience. 

With his third album, Ikigai, released in April 2022, Romero reached #28 on the Transglobal World Music Chart. Ikigai is an ode to Spanish folklore and its crossover with Atlantic folk sounds, composed and performed on a steel-string guitar, full of colors and nuances. Performing internationally, including at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in the US, the World Music Festival Tawain, and the Adriatico Mediterraneo Festival in Italy, he continues to captivate audiences with his vibrant performances. 

Play Day: Paper Play

Sunday, March 16, 2025, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

Ames Family Atrium

Free

Play Days at the CMA are free opportunities for families to be creative and curious and connect through art together. Events include music, storybook readings, games, and art making for the whole family. Each event has a theme that relates to an exhibition, artist, or artworks in the CMA’s collection.

Step into Play Day and explore the wonders of paper come to life! Unfold your creativity with hands-on activities that invite you to explore paper in all its forms, inspired by Picasso and Paper.

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This exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris.

This exhibition is presented by CIBC.

Major support is provided by Anne H. Weil. Generous support is provided by the Carol Yellig Family Fund. Additional support is provided by Carl M. Jenks and Frank and Fran Porter.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Christine Powell, Michael and Cindy Resch, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.

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About the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations. One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning open access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.