Brilliant, rebellious, passionate, playful, ironic – Pablo Picasso was all of these things and much more. He was the artist who left the deepest mark on twentieth-century art, revolutionizing its methods and aesthetic canons. Even as an adolescent he already possessed an exceptional mastery of technique. Then in his long and tireless artistic quest he left mere virtuosity behind, seeking instead to create art that was direct, energetic and dynamic.

 

The exhibition presents a selection of works from Paris’s Musée Picasso that have been divided into thematic sections, thus allowing the visitor to retrace the artist’s extraordinary artistic and human adventure. Ranging from his early nineteenth-century African-inspired works to his more Mediterranean bathers and the celebrated portraits of women he made in the thirties and fifties, the exhibition reveals Picasso’s poetics in all its overwhelming beauty. In particular, these are works that Picasso always kept with him over the years as he moved constantly from place to place. They were part of his everyday life, tangible signs of the deep-seated connection between art and life that was his hallmark. The exhibition also displays numerous photographs depicting him alongside his works. We see him in some of his many ateliers, which were in actual fact more like creative workshops, from his Parisian beginnings in the Bateau-Lavoir to the various mas, the large farmhouses so typical of the Provençal countryside where he chose to spend the last years of his life. This organically structured exhibition highlights the Mediterranean roots and profound vitality of Picasso’s art, giving an insight into his way of looking at reality – passionate, never banal and constantly breaking new ground.