Catalogue
Andrew Roff explains the complex collaboration involved in producing a major catalogue for a great artist
For an editor, the prospect of making a catalogue for a Pablo Picasso exhibition is a daunting one – not only from a publishing perspective (a quick Amazon search reveals more than 8,000 Picasso books) but also logistically. Complex loan agreements were made more so by the pressures of an already tight schedule. And the family estate, one of the busiest of all artists’ estates, understandably required approval of all published material.
Above these practicalities, there is the simple objective of presenting this great artist in the very best way possible.
The essence of making every exhibition catalogue is reliant on collaboration – between editor and curator, between editor and colleagues responsible for managing the exhibition, between lender and gallery – but the collaborative aspect of Picasso Portraits is more than that. The exhibition is at London’s National Portrait Gallery, before it travels to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona to open in March, and is a partnership between the two galleries. It was a pleasure to work with the exhibition’s curator, the eminent Picasso scholar Elizabeth Cowling, as well as Bernardo Laniado-Romero, the director of the Museu Picasso, and many other specialists from the museum, all of them experts in various facets of Picasso’s work.
For an artist whose use of colour and handling of paint was integral to his practice, we knew that reproducing his work as faithfully as possible was of utmost importance – and with over 200 images to consider, this would be a monumental task.
Steered by the excellent eye of Cowling (who had seen almost all the exhibition works at least once, but sometimes as long as 15 years ago), the image-proofing stage was long and involved. We compared several digital images from different institutions, studied match-prints and checked other reputable books; some proofs reached seven or eight stages of revision.
The Museu Picasso also put us in a unique position – one in which every publisher would like to be when producing an exhibition catalogue: we were able to check the proofs against the works on their walls, and the Museo Picasso Bernardo provided excellent references for colour-matching purposes. The final approval then had to come from the Picasso Administration in Paris: thanks to the hard work of the teams at both institutions, and Cowling’s expertise, the administration approved nearly all of the image proofs, with small amendments requested for only a few.
The cover design sparked debate between the two institutions and, interestingly, was one aspect of the project on which we agreed to disagree. Through discussion, we came to understand that we would need two different covers for the two venues.
The collaboration was a successful meeting of ideas between the Museu Picasso and the National Portrait Gallery: uniting the portraits of Picasso in two distinguished venues, and in one great catalogue.
Andrew Roff is an editor at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Picasso Portraits is on show there until 5 February
Above these practicalities, there is the simple objective of presenting this great artist in the very best way possible.
The essence of making every exhibition catalogue is reliant on collaboration – between editor and curator, between editor and colleagues responsible for managing the exhibition, between lender and gallery – but the collaborative aspect of Picasso Portraits is more than that. The exhibition is at London’s National Portrait Gallery, before it travels to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona to open in March, and is a partnership between the two galleries. It was a pleasure to work with the exhibition’s curator, the eminent Picasso scholar Elizabeth Cowling, as well as Bernardo Laniado-Romero, the director of the Museu Picasso, and many other specialists from the museum, all of them experts in various facets of Picasso’s work.
For an artist whose use of colour and handling of paint was integral to his practice, we knew that reproducing his work as faithfully as possible was of utmost importance – and with over 200 images to consider, this would be a monumental task.
Steered by the excellent eye of Cowling (who had seen almost all the exhibition works at least once, but sometimes as long as 15 years ago), the image-proofing stage was long and involved. We compared several digital images from different institutions, studied match-prints and checked other reputable books; some proofs reached seven or eight stages of revision.
The Museu Picasso also put us in a unique position – one in which every publisher would like to be when producing an exhibition catalogue: we were able to check the proofs against the works on their walls, and the Museo Picasso Bernardo provided excellent references for colour-matching purposes. The final approval then had to come from the Picasso Administration in Paris: thanks to the hard work of the teams at both institutions, and Cowling’s expertise, the administration approved nearly all of the image proofs, with small amendments requested for only a few.
The cover design sparked debate between the two institutions and, interestingly, was one aspect of the project on which we agreed to disagree. Through discussion, we came to understand that we would need two different covers for the two venues.
The collaboration was a successful meeting of ideas between the Museu Picasso and the National Portrait Gallery: uniting the portraits of Picasso in two distinguished venues, and in one great catalogue.
Andrew Roff is an editor at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Picasso Portraits is on show there until 5 February