WKAR will look at the influence of artist Pablo Picasso in three interview/features airing on May 2, 3, and 4 on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The interviews will also be archived on WKAR.org for listening on demand.

Scott Pohl will speak with Roy Saper, who is hosting an exhibit at Saper Galleries about the artist, in one of the pieces. He also plans to speak with an art professor for a second piece. Gretchen Millich will focus on art in the community in the series’' third feature piece.

The segments coincide with a new exhibit at Saper Galleries featuring Picasso originals. One million people paid to see his art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980. Exactly two years ago his oil painting of a young boy sold for $104 million. And now, for two months in downtown East Lansing, the public will be able to learn more about the artist by seeing up close and in person more than five dozen original graphics and ceramics by the most famous artist ever, Pablo Picasso.

“"People know the name and know his art is ‘'different', but many do not know more about what it is that made Picasso so illustrious during his own lifetime," observed Roy C. Saper, who is bringing the Picasso collection to his Saper Galleries. “"Picasso is universally recognized as the most important artist of the 20th century because he was such an innovator, with indefatigable energy to create in so many art media," Saper noted. “"In terms of output, he would produce in a year what Rembrandt would create in a lifetime."

Picasso, born in 1891 in Malaga, Spain, is noted for the melancholy paintings of his 1901-1904 Blue Period, reflecting the sadness he observed as he traveled to Paris to strike out on his own as an artist. The 1905 Rose period then reflected better times and a sense of joyful spirit, influenced in part by his observing the circus and its workers.

In 1907 his famous painting titled Les Demoiselles de Avignon was such a departure from anything brought to canvas before him that he responded to the critics by rolling it up for storage. That painting is now the most important Cubist painting in the world and is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Picasso started out as a classical artist in the tradition of the masters but as a teenager his impatience with tradition caused him to see his subjects differently resulting in his developing a new visual language as reflected in his thousands of paintings created over a 70-year span. In his Cubist paintings he presented in two-dimensions multiple views of a single subject. He then was the first artist to add collage and other dimension to his paintings creating sculptural paintings which was an art form new to the world of art.

In 1937, in response to the German bombing of the small Basque village of Guernica, Spain, Picasso created what is often cited as his most famous painting, Guernica, which displayed the horrors of war using forms and figures in a method that challenged the aesthetic traditions of the past.

Picasso set the stage for so much of what is being painted today. He broke the traditions of the classical and even Impressionist paintings, paving new directions that set the stage for all artists who followed him.

In this world-class exhibition, Saper collected more than 60 original graphics (such as etchings and lithographs) and painted ceramics to explain visually and with accompanying text the life of the artist as reflected in the art displayed. Beyond most gallery or museum exhibitions, Saper researched each of the works of art and wrote descriptive detail that puts the art in context with Picasso’'s life, particularly with respect to his two wives and many mistresses and muses.

Picasso was a unique phenomenon in the world of art and there will never be an artist whose life gave so much to the world of art, not just in terms of productivity, often creating many paintings daily for decades, well into his 80s, but also for paving new directions in the art itself. Picasso was an innovator of styles, media, and techniques, more so that anyone before him or since he died in France in 1973.

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art stated that Picasso is clearly the greatest printmaker of the 20th century.

The rare graphics and ceramics will be displayed from the exhibition opening, Sunday, May 7 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. to Sunday, July 2, 2006 at Saper Galleries, 433 Albert Avenue in downtown East Lansing, phone 517-351-0815. The art and descriptive information can be previewed on the website www.sapergalleries.com.