This installation is a ‘conversation’ between one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), and a talented young artist from Cuba, Carlos Luna (born 1969).  Both artists had to leave their native countries in order to develop as artists; Picasso left Spain for France in the beginning of the 20th century; Luna left Cuba for Mexico at the end of that same century.  The two artists share a common heritage in the art of Spain, a passion for art-making, and although they live/d on different continents at different times, they share in the expression of common, universal themes.

The installation contains a large group of editioned ceramics by Pablo Picasso selected by Luna from the Museum’s Bernie Bercuson Collection, which includes impeccably fabricated plates, platters, and plaques decorated in Picasso’s inimitable style with bullfights, dancers, and Don Quixote, as well as pitchers, tankards and vases that are crafted into owls and beautiful women.  The Museum’s Picasso ceramic collection underscores the graphic and decorative quality of Carlos Luna’s painting.  There are subjects – bulls and birds, and male and female protagonists – that one finds in both artists’ work.  But this is less an exercise in finding sources of influence, than simply creating an exciting new channel of communication between the works of two artists.