Pace: Seeing Picasso
Local Projects
2019
Running from November 2019 - February 2020, Seeing Picasso was the first exhibition of Pablo Picasso's artwork in Palo Alto. Spanning the late 1890s to the early 1970s, the show highlighted Picasso's key breakthrough moments, which catalyzed a number of artistic movements and styles of the modern era. In collaboration with Line Break studio, we developed an augmented reality experience on iPad that helps guide visitors through the exhibition.
NOTE: due to the works being the copyright of the Picasso Foundation, I do not have the rights to show several of them. To respect the owner’s copyright, I have obscured several of the works.
NOTE: due to the works being the copyright of the Picasso Foundation, I do not have the rights to show several of them. To respect the owner’s copyright, I have obscured several of the works.
Contextualizing Never
Before Seen Works
— 01
The iPad app contextualizes each piece in the show. When viewed through the iPad camera, artwork is identified via image / object recognition. The Seeing Picasso app responds by displaying virtual artwork adjacent to the painting or sculpture in focus. Each additional image can be further investigated to provide more information.
Visitors are also treated to an audio narration from Picasso scholar Alexander Nemerov of Stanford University for each piece. Alexander Nemerov poetically describes the history, meaning, and significance of each piece breaking the initiation needed to appreciate Picasso’s work. I feel that the benefit of an experience like this is that it democrotizes art in a way that hasn’t been done before. There is a level of appreciation for art that can only be had after being immersed in it. By providing an audio narrated tour complete with additional refrences that a visitor can engage with at their own pace allows a truely beautiful level of accessibility.
NOTE: Artwork images obscured or replaced due to copyright.
Augmenting the Gallery Experience
— 02
Augmented Reality Compositions
Each augmented reality scene was constructed in Reality Composer and rendered with RealityKit.
This approach allowed us to iterate while developing the experience and testing on-site at PACE.
I worked closely with Line Break Studio to create
This approach allowed us to iterate while developing the experience and testing on-site at PACE.
I worked closely with Line Break Studio to create
Press
— 03The show recieved covereage in Forbes, Content, Artland, and was a huge success.
"It's a new kind of dance with the artwork."
— Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
"Why the world shouldn’t be visible all at once, why it shouldn’t all fly toward us, jumping out of a box, why it shouldn’t all appear in rhyme and relation instead of separate and apart—beckoned to our call, an unwritten score."
— Alex Nemerov
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![Marc Glimcher takes a photo of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso at Pace Palo Alto ANDO CAULFIELD OF DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF PACE]()
"It's a new kind of dance with the artwork."
— Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
"Why the world shouldn’t be visible all at once, why it shouldn’t all fly toward us, jumping out of a box, why it shouldn’t all appear in rhyme and relation instead of separate and apart—beckoned to our call, an unwritten score."
— Alex Nemerov
Credits:
Eric Mika
Creative Director
Creative Director
Jaein Lee
Project Manager
Project Manager
Nina Bosch
Lead UX Design
Lead UX Design
Christian Browne
Visual Experience Designer
Visual Experience Designer
Outside Teams: