Picasso, my master. Or how Rodney Graham Appropriates Picasso

Guided tour in conjunction with the exhibition on Rodney Graham

The exhibition focusing on Canadian artist Rodney Graham will present works spanning two decades, from 1978 to 2008. In his complex work, Graham uses appropriation techniques so as to pay tribute to some of the «masters» of the arts, literature, philosophy and pop music, with a respectful irony that demystifies their undisputed influence and suggests a new way of seeing them. Sigmund Freud and Donald Judd, Edgar Allan Poe and Georg Büchner, Jeff Wall and Pablo Picasso provide the physical and conceptual framework of many of Graham's pieces. The exhibition includes the series Picasso, My Master (2005), his first foray into painting, which playfully deconstructs the aura of mastery in the work of Picasso, combining an undisguised imitation of the master's style with Graham's «amateur» painting skills and his personal touches. Given that the exhibition will spread further in Barcelona through a collaboration with the Picasso Museum, we offer a tour encompassing both the MACBA and Picasso museums, in order to see, discuss and debate as a group the relationship that exists between these two artists.