MONTEREY, CA – As a complement to Monterey Collects: Masterworks from Monterey County Collections exhibition, the Monterey Museum of Art will mount an exhibition of prints by Pablo Picasso. Entitled Picasso: The Art of Line, this installation will highlight a selection of twelve etchings and lithographs by the world-renowned artist. The works represent selections from the Museum’s permanent collection holdings as well as those of a private collection. “Pablo Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century and it is a special honor to display his works at the Monterey Museum of Art,” said Michael Whittington, Executive Director.

Highlights include six etched illustrations to the rare 1934 American edition of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, the ancient Greek comedy in which a band of heroines use their femine wiles to bring an end to the Peloponnesian war. The exhibition also includes etchings from the Vollard Suite, compiled by the French art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. Spanning the decades of 1930s through the 1960s, the exhibition is a meditation on Picasso’s unique brand of classicism. “This exhibition reveals Picasso’s extraordinary skills as a draftsman as well as the profound influence of the classical tradition on his artmaking,” explained Marcelle Polednik, Director of Collections and Exhibitions.

Picasso: The Art of Line will be on view at the Monterey Museum of Art, Pacific Street from July 15^th until October 22, 2006.