Paint by numbers — all the details on the record-breaking Picasso exhibit at the Mint

Over 14 weeks, nearly 70,000 people visited Mint Museum Uptown for a rare chance to see a local exhibition of Pablo Picasso paintings, the museum announced Tuesday.

They came from nearly every N.C. county, all 50 states, and from Spain to South Africa to see “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.” Organized by the American Federation of Arts, the exhibit showcased dozens of landscape paintings by the titan of modern art and was the first traveling exhibition of Picasso landscapes anywhere.

Charlotte was the first of three U.S. museums that showcased the artwork gathered from public and private collections from around the world, some never on public view before. The exhibit opened Feb. 11 and closed May 21.

The exhibit, which brought in a wide and diverse range of visitors was “extraordinary and something we are committed to with future exhibitions,” Mint Museum CEO Todd Herman said in a statement.

Herman and The Mint say the exhibit surpassed its goals with record attendance, as well as for community partnerships and diverse outreach.

“Picasso Landscapes” brought in 69,025 visitors, the Mint said. Combined with other exhibitions during the fiscal 2023 year, the Mint Museum Uptown has seen more visitors than any previous year since the museum opened in 2010.

A record-breaking 153,814 people have visited Mint Museum Uptown since July 2022. That topped the previous record, when the uptown museum saw 97,829 visitors in the 2022 fiscal year.

The last time the Mint hosted an exhibit comparable in stature to “Picasso Landscapes,” was 35 years ago. “Ramesses The Great: The Pharaoh and His Time” showcased over 70 artifacts and required the Mint to make lighting and other renovations.

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Local reach of the Picasso exhibit

“Picasso Landscapes,” which also marks the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death at age 91 in 1973, helped cast a spotlight on local artwork and collaborations.

A related Mint exhibition explored connections between Picasso and Charlotte native Romare Bearden in “Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations.” Curated by Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at The Mint, the exhibit showcased three Picassos and 17 Beardens from the museum’s collection and loans.

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Charlotte Lab School, Talking Walls, Optimist Hall, Queens University, Heist Brewing, Independent Picture House, and local artists also created their own works in response to the exhibition.

Picasso exhibit by the numbers

▪ More than 6,000 area students from kindergarten to 12th grade and art teachers saw the exhibit at no cost, thanks to local sponsors.

▪ More than 2,700 people attended exhibit programming collaborations by Theatre Charlotte, Charlotte Symphony, JazzArts, Opera Carolina, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, and the Playing Pablo mural project.

▪ Visitors came from 98 out of 100 counties in North Carolina.

▪ And visitors came from all 50 states.

▪ People also came from at least 46 countries, from as far away as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, as well as Romania, Italy, France, Spain, England, Guatemala and Mexico.

Rare Picasso exhibit with expansive views

American Federation Arts guest curator Laurence Madeline developed the idea for an exhibit focusing solely on Picasso’s landscapes. Of Picasso’s 13,500 paintings, only 200 to 300 were landscapes. Madeline added short films and photos to provide more context for the paintings.

The federation organized the exhibit with support from Musée National Picasso-Paris.

Among the groups loaning out paintings were the Museum of Modern Art in New York, FABA art foundation of Madrid and Luxembourg’s Musée national d’histoire et d’art.

The cost to bring “Picasso Landscapes” to The Mint was $1.4 million, at least triple what is normally spent on a single exhibition by the museum. The money was quickly raised with $900,000 in funding from corporate sponsors and private donors, and the remaining $500,000 from the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

The exhibit now heads to the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio from June 23 to Oct. 15, followed by the Mississippi Museum of Art from Nov. 12 to March 3, 2024.