During the late 1920s Pablo Picasso became interested in designing imaginary “monuments” in which inventive and surrealistic figures are envisioned as gigantic sculptures. Here he revisits the Harlequin as a lighthearted figure, his cap perched jauntily on his head. Lemon yellow, violet, orange-red, and green and muted tones of blue, rose, and chocolate brown are framed in heavy black lines and set against a background of silvery white. “Cubism,” said Picasso, is “an art dealing primarily with forms, and when a form is realized it is there to live its own life. A mineral substance, having geometric formation, is not made to transitory purposes, it is to remain what it is and will always have its own form.”

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017