Collection works including Picasso inform new Remai Modern exhibition
For immediate release — Wednesday, May 31, 2023
SASKATOON, CANADA — The Pablo Picasso work Tête de Faune (1962) is the starting point for a new exhibition at Remai Modern. Through a series of prints from Remai Modern’s collection, the artist created an intriguing narrative of transformation, from human to faun.
Titled Becoming the Faun, the exhibition also features works from Remai Modern’s collection by Bridget Moser, Elaine Cameron-Weir, John Kavik, Nancy Spero and Dominque Rey that touch on ideas related to the body, hybridity, identity and mythology.
“Remai Modern’s collection of Picasso linocuts is unique for its ability to explore the artist at work and gain insight into his creative process. But beyond the glimpse of his technical skills, the works on view also tell a story about the formation of self, processes of change and ideas of becoming,” said Troy Gronsdahl, Curator (Performance & Public Practice). “The exhibition also incorporates live elements that create a dynamic environment for viewers.”
Becoming the Faun includes a new performance by Saskatoon-based poet and performer Alasdair Rees and a durational music composition by Saskatoon composer Darren Miller that will unfold over the duration of the exhibition’s run.
On Friday, June 2 at 8 PM, in the Connect Gallery, Remai Modern will host an opening night celebration that also includes Rees, Miller, and a live performance of modern and new music by a string quartet featuring Véronique Mathieu, Luke Hnenny, Shah Sadikov, and Joel MacDonald and the University of Saskatchewan Amati instruments.
Admission by donation; free entry for members and youth under 18.
Gronsdahl will host a curator’s tour of Becoming the Faun on June 10 at 2 PM.
About Remai Modern’s Picasso linocut collection
Remai Modern houses the most comprehensive collection of linocuts by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). This focused and specialized collection includes editioned prints, working states and experimental proofs that provide insight into the artist’s process—a rare glimpse into one of the 20th century’s most prolific and innovative artists.
All of Picasso’s linocuts were produced in a 17-year period between 1951 and 1968, with his master printer, Hidalgo Arnera (1922-2007). With Arnera’s expertise and support, the artist worked hands-on to understand, and push, the limits and possibilities of the linocut process. The collection includes posters Picasso made for the local bullfights and the summer pottery exhibitions. The posters were printed in editions of 200 to 600, whereas many of the linocuts were printed in editions of 50, some in editions of just a few.
About Remai Modern’s collection
As a major collecting museum in Saskatchewan, Remai Modern holds in trust more than 8,000 artworks in a wide variety of media. The museum’s collecting focus is on art produced from around 1900 to the present moment and aims to strike an optimal balance between local, regional and global interests.
The collection generates compelling connections between art from the Great Plains and the wider world, situating the artmaking of the region in a broader context. The collection is an important part of Remai Modern’s commitment to interrogating the idea of “modern” from multiple cultural, historical and contemporary positions.
About Remai Modern
Remai Modern is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Traditional Homeland of the Métis. We pay our respects to First Nations and Métis ancestors and reaffirm our relationship with one another.
Remai Modern is a new museum of modern and contemporary art in Saskatoon. The museum presents and collects local and international modern and contemporary art that connects, inspires and challenges diverse audiences through equitable and accessible programs.
Open since October 2017, Remai Modern is the largest contemporary art museum in western Canada and houses a collection of more than 8,000 works, including the world’s foremost collection of Picasso linocut prints.
Remai Modern would like to acknowledge the contributions of the Frank & Ellen Remai Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture through the Sask Lotteries Fund, SK Arts and the City of Saskatoon.
For additional information contact:
Stephanie McKay, Communications Manager
smckay@remaimodern.org
306.975.2242