In its long history, spanning almost 150 years, the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery in Cork has hosted many wonderful exhibitions, but easily the most important will be the Picasso Drawings, 1896-1934, which opens on September 14th.
It is quite a coup for the gallery and its director, Mr Peter Murray, to have secured agreement for the exhibition from the Musee Picasso in Paris. The 60 drawings on paper, in pencil, charcoal, ink and gouache, represent all the Picasso periods, from the earliest to the blue period, through Cubism and Surrealism.
Never before has such a complete Picasso exhibition been assembled in the Republic. As many as 10 exhibitions of the artist's work are touring the world at any one time, and applications for permission to mount exhibitions arrive daily on the desk of Jean Clair, director of the Musee Picasso.
The seeds for the Cork exhibition were sown in 1995 at the Venice Biennale when the Irish Ambassador to Italy hosted a lunch for Mr Clair. Irish success at the Biennale did nothing to hurt the Cork cause either. There followed an invitation to select an exhibition, and Mr Murray went to Paris to do so.
"We accepted the invitation very much aware that other museums around the world had not been granted permission. Jean Clair is a taciturn man. He doesn't say too much, but I believe he has good regard for Ireland and that our application was successful on its merits.
"It has taken two years' work to bring this exhibition to Cork. None of these drawings has ever before been seen in Ireland, and they represent a tremendous opportunity for Irish audiences to experience in person the work of one of the acknowledged geniuses in the history of art," he said.
Entry to the exhibition will probably be free, and if there is a charge it will be nominal. The drawings will go on display in the Crawford's new two-storey extension, designed by the Dutch architect, Erick van Egaraat. This has given the old building a new sense of space and light and a sophisticated climate control system without which it would not be possible to show such a delicate collection.
"The works range from sketches on the back of an envelope to formal studies for oils that are now classics in the Picasso canon, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Other drawings demonstrate the underlying technical skill, classical training and emotional acuity that Picasso brought to the humblest of subjects," said Ms Anne Boddaert, the exhibition organiser.
A full-colour catalogue will be on sale and an outreach programme for primary and secondary schools is planned. The exhibition will run until October 27th.