Memorial Art Gallery Presents Picasso and the Progressive Proof—An Intimate Look at Picasso’s Creative Process
Rochester, NY, January 27, 2026— Best known as a prolific painter and sculptor, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was also an extraordinary printmaker. Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocut Prints from a Private Collection, opening on Saturday, February 14, at the Memorial Art Gallery offers visitors a rare opportunity to look closely at Picasso’s creative process in printmaking. MAG’s Lockhart Gallery provides an intimate setting for this focused exhibition that illuminates his groundbreaking contributions to the medium.
Featuring three significant works—Portrait of a Young Woman after Cranach the Younger II, Pike II, and Bacchanal with Kid Goat and Onlooker—along with their proofs showing the various stages of the process, the exhibition reveals how these works and subjects developed in the latter part of Picasso’s career. The prints reflect themes that recur throughout the artist’s work, including his Spanish heritage, mythology, the classical past, and his engagement with European old masters.
Picasso and the Progressive Proof invites museumgoers to examine Picasso’s artistic ingenuity up close, offering a unique, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most influential artists of the modern era.
This exhibition is sponsored by Roslyn and John Goldman, Sharon and Robert Napier, and the MAG Council, and organized by Townsend Art Advisory LLC.
More information about the exhibition and admission tickets can be found here.
About the Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery showcases art from antiquity to the present day, including the outdoor public Centennial Sculpture Park. In addition to its permanent collection, MAG offers a year-round schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, after-hours social events, and family activities. Learn more at mag.rochester.edu
Press contact: Paige Engard, Marketing & PR Specialist: 585.474.7695 / pengard@mag.rochester.edu
Photo 1: Pablo Picasso, Portrait of a Young Woman after Cranach the Younger II (trial proof of all five blocks), 1958. Linocut. Private Collection © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York