Image: Remai Modern, Saskatoon
Remai Modern has opened 'Studies in Description', an exhibition of linocut prints and ceramics drawn from the museum’s Picasso collection and organized around the writing of Gertrude Stein. The exhibition is on view in the Picasso Gallery from June 20, 2026, to April 18, 2027, and brings together works featuring everyday objects, still life arrangements and domestic interiors.
According to the museum, the selection takes Stein’s 1914 book of poetry, 'Tender Buttons', as its structural model. That text, divided into the categories Objects, Food and Rooms, is described by the institution as a foundational work of modern literature. In 'Studies in Description', that framework is used to group Picasso artworks that return to the domestic and the ordinary while rendering familiar subjects strange through abstraction and formal experiment.
The exhibition also foregrounds the long relationship between Stein and Pablo Picasso. Remai Modern describes Stein as an early supporter of Picasso whose patronage and friendship were critical to the development of his career. Their connection, formed within the literary avant-garde and Cubism, is presented as central to the artistic climate of early 20th-century Paris, where both figures contributed to new expressive forms and broke with traditional modes of representation.
A work by Picasso, 'Nature morte au verre sous la lampe' (1962), appears in the museum’s exhibition materials and reflects the focus on printed colour, still life and the transformation of commonplace objects. The project draws on Remai Modern’s Picasso holdings rather than borrowing from outside collections, making the museum’s own holdings the basis for the installation.
'Studies in Description' is curated by Troy Gronsdahl, Curator (Performance & Public Practice), according to the museum’s exhibition page. Remai Modern positions the show within its ongoing presentation of the Picasso collection, linking it to the artist’s printmaking and ceramic production as well as to the literary and historical context that Stein supplied.
The exhibition is located in the Picasso Gallery at Remai Modern, 102 Spadina Crescent E. The museum’s exhibition page lists the run as June 20, 2026–April 18, 2027, with regular public hours noted on the site.
