Sculpting Space and Sculpting Light

Picasso produced his first cut-out cardboard sculpture in 1912. Not long afterwards, he made other sculptures in which he used sheet metal instead of cardboard. While Picasso’s early cut-out sculptures were very much part of Cubist experimentation, his use of sheet metal can be associated wtih the decorative metalwork of Catalan Modernism.

Picasso, González and Matisse became the referents of a “cut-out poetry” developed in the mid-20th century, which was cultivated by representatives of late Modernism such as Fontana, Gottlieb, Consagra and Chillida, as well as by Picasso himself in his later years. Despite their diversity, the work of these artists shares a common denominator which could be described as oscillating between “sculpting space” and “sculpting light”.

Tomàs Llorens spoke about this subject in his lecture Sculpting Space and Sculpting Light (Picasso and the 20th-century
tradition of cut-out sculpture), that he offered in the context of the exhibition Picasso. Head of a Woman. Profile. The Collection in Context.

In collaboration with the Universidad de Málaga.