The Brooklyn Museum in New York wants to prove that an anniversary exhibition does not necessarily have to be a homage. There, curators Catherine Morris and Lisa Small brought Australian comedy star Hannah Gadsby, a notorious Picasso hater, onto the team. On the question of whether art and people can be separated, Gadsby likes to talk at length about people in their mid-fifties who seduce minors – as in Picasso’s case Marie-Thérèse Walter (June 2 to September 24).
At the end of his life, the artist himself made the tension between the painter and his model the subject of his paintings: “Le peintre et son modèle”.
(Photo: Mathieu Rabeau / Sucession Picasso 2023 / VG Bildkunst, Bonn 2023)
But on the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death, most museums will carry out rather conservative sightings of the oeuvre. After the beautiful exhibitions at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel (until May 1st) and “The other Picasso. Ceramic works and works on paper” at the Moritzburg in Halle (until May 21st) the big settings for the summer and autumn are to be expected: In New York, the Guggenheim Museum opens “The Young Picasso in Paris” on May 12 (until August 6), the Museum of Modern Art closes with “Picasso in Fontainebleau” from October 1st (until February 2nd).
The most important event will probably be “Picasso. 2023 Drawings” at the Center Pompidou
Spain is also paying homage to the national genius with major projects: the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid is presenting his work alongside works by El Greco (June 13 to September 17). From November 14, also in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia – where Guernica is also permanently hung – the beginning of Cubism will be examined with the exhibition “Picasso 1906: The Great Transformation” (until March 4, 2024). “Picasso. The Sacred and the Profane” (October 4 to January 14, 2024) is running almost simultaneously in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Celebrating color: Fashion designer Paul Smith curated “Célébration”.
(Photo: Voyez-Vous/Vinciane Lebrun/ Succession Picasso 2023 / VG Bildkunst, Bonn 2023)
The exhibition “Célébration. Colors in the collection! Curated by Paul Smith” is still open until August 27th to see in the Musée Picasso in Paris, the exhibition “Picasso and Prehistory” in the Musée de l’Homme until 12th of June. The most important event in the anniversary year will probably be the contribution of the Center Pompidou, which opens on October 18 with a “Picasso. 2023 Drawings” (until January 22, 2024).
For the German public, the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal will close the anniversary year with a comparison of “Pablo Picasso – Max Beckmann” (September 17 to January 7, 2024). It is striking that none of the exhibitions still deal with the subject of Picasso and his women. Finally. The only relationship that seems worth considering in its own right is the friendship with the writer Gertrude Stein, which the Paris Musée de Luxembourg examines with “Gertrude Stein et Picasso. The Invention of Language” (September 13 to January 28, 2024).