METROPOLITAN PICASSO
by Walter Robinson



"Everything we got by Pablo Picasso" is not much of a curatorial concept, or so it turns out in the new exhibition, "Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Apr. 27-Aug. 1, 2010. Arranged chronologically -- a room for the youthful Toulouse-Lautrec-inspired works, a room for the Blue Period, a room for Cubism, and so on, with two large galleries holding woodcuts and etchings at the end -- the show has an awkward rhythm of too familiar iconic pictures interspersed with uninspiring also-rans. Sort of like a long snake that has swallowed a whole lot of mice.

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