Perrotin is pleased to participate to this year’s Independent 20th Century in New York with a dual solo presentation of works on paper by Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso. Two of the most seminal figures of twentieth-century art, Calder and Picasso's practices were both engaged in groundbreaking explorations into form, line, and space.
During a yearlong stay in Aix-en-Provence in 1953, Alexander Calder created a series of gouache works on paper, which would remain a constant medium throughout his life. Through his paintings, the artist seamlessly translates his fascination of circus and the vocabulary of his sculptural practice into two-dimensions. Defined by geometric shapes and the primary color palette, the works on view showcase Calder's commitment to the exploration of tension and equilibrium between lines and space.
Pablo Picasso’s works on paper, an important medium throughout his career, illustrate an evolution of the artist’s recognizable fluid lines and Cubist motifs. The geometric forms of Picasso's early drawings showcase his experimentation into abstract fragmentation, whereas Painter and Model (1970) is rendered with a confident single line.
