Gift of Picasso prints to Remai Gallery of Saskatchewan

SASKATOON, SK CANADA — The Board of Trustees of the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan (www.remai.ca) takes great pleasure in announcing that the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation has donated an exceptional collection of 405 Picasso prints to the Remai Gallery. This Picasso linocut collection, valued at $20 million, doubles the value of the Gallery’s permanent collection.“This is a transformational gift,” said Board Chair Jason Aebig. “It was extremely generous of our lead patron, Ellen Remai, to make this investment in the Gallery’s permanent collection. It will be wonderful to see the Picasso works on view at the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan when it opens in 2015.”

“The Remai Gallery is privileged to receive a virtually complete collection of linocuts, produced by Pablo Picasso,” said the Gallery’s Chief Curator, Lisa Baldissera. “The editioned prints, experimental proofs, and working states comprise what is the largest, and arguably the finest, collection of Picasso linocuts in the world.”

In donating the Picasso collection to the Remai Art Gallery, “I want to put the Gallery on the international stage,” said Ellen Remai, an entrepreneur and noted philanthropist. “It is my hope that these works, by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, will create many opportunities for the Gallery and will inspire visitors and local artists for decades to come.”

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) made these prints between 1951 and 1966. The collection was assembled over a period of a decade by Dr. Frederick Mulder, a London-based, Saskatchewan-born art dealer. The collection comprises 405 Picasso linocuts: 193 out of 197 linocut subjects he created, plus 212 working proofs.

A gallery space on the third floor of the Remai Gallery, The Picasso Salon: International Modern Art, will be dedicated to the Picasso gift and works of international modernity.

The gift of the Picasso collection follows the Foundation’s 2011 donation of $30 million to the Gallery, directed towards the construction of the facility, and enhanced programming over the next 30 years