French Festival Singapore 2007 Voilah! @ Pablo Picasso: The Vollard Suite (1930 -37)
3 May to 7 July 2007
Mon to Sat: 10 am – 6 pm
Closed on Sun & Public Holidays
Free admission
Singapore Tyler Print Institute
Singapore

For the first time, one of the greatest masters of modern art comes back to life with 100 works in Singapore. This year’s most anticipated event happened on the 2nd of May when Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) unveiled a 2 million dollar showcase of Picasso’s most renowned graphic work, The Vollard Suite.

The exhibition of the rare and complete set of 100 prints consisting of etchings, aquatints and drypoints (1930-37) with a central theme of a Minotaur – a mythological figure of a bull’s head with a man’s body -- is the first solo show by Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) in Singapore. The Vollard Suite, which is in a private European collection, is valued at 1.2 million euros.

Ambroise Vollard (1866 – 1936) -- the man whose name graces the collection – was a legendary French art dealer and publisher, introduced to Picasso in Paris 1901. Shortly thereafter, Vollard gave Picasso his first exhibition including the famous first blue period works in 1902.

With the success of Picasso’s illustrations for Balzac’s Chef d’Oeuvre Inconnu and Le Metamorposis d’Ovid, Vollard was inspired to commission one hundred plates from him, which make up The Vollard Suite. By March 1937, the series was completed with the addition of three more portraits of the publisher himself.

Picasso’s Vollard Suite is hailed as “one of the greatest triumphs of his graphic art”1 and STPI’s showing this seminal collection in its entirety will be a rare opportunity for the Singapore public to view and will make for a memorable exhibition.

This show will be the latest in a string of elite blockbuster exhibitions curated by STPI.Collections and artists shown in previous years have included: Half- century of Chinese woodblock prints from 1945 to 1997; The Enlightened Vision: Robert Motherwell’s Prints In Singapore, and most recently in 2006, Pop Haring: Symbols And Icons – Editions On Paper From The Estate Of Keith Haring.

Says STPI director Irene Lee: “As an integral part of our Education and Public Outreach programme, the Institute is dedicated to bring in exciting exhibitions by world-renowned artists highlighting the fine art of printmaking.”

Log on to www.stpi.com.sg for more information.

Photography by Eugene Tang. All Rights Reserved.