Picasso, Braque, Léger, Delaunay

Another way to get out of the house this winter and enjoy life in Buffalo. A new exhibit at the Albright Knox-Artists in Depth: Picasso, Braque, Léger, Delaunay, presented by The Buffalo News, is the first in a new series of ongoing exhibitions drawn from the Albright-Knox’s Collection focusing on important artists whose works the Gallery has acquired in depth. The series will reach beyond the Gallery’s well-known masterworks to highlight a broad range of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from selected artists’ careers. Many of the works are less known to Albright-Knox audiences, not having been exhibited in some time, but, seen together, they will bring context and greater understanding to the chosen artists’ practices and their art-historical legacies.

With this first exhibition, the Gallery returns to its modernist roots with a complete display of all works in the Collection—more than seventy-five objects—by four masters: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973), Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963), Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955), and Sonia Delaunay (French, born Russia, 1885–1979). All were early-twentieth-century pioneers of abstraction—Picasso and Braque joined forces as the founders of Cubism, Delaunay’s bright colors and geometric forms presaged geometric abstraction, and Léger’s cylindrical forms interpreted the mechanical age and predated Pop art.

Future exhibitions in this series will highlight various groupings, themes, and individual artists, all with the aim of examining the richness and depth of the Albright-Knox’s Collection through new perspectives.

This exhibition is organized by Curator Heather Pesanti and Curatorial Assistant Ilana Chlebowski.

The "Spotlight on the Collection" series is presented by