PICASSO. MASTERPIECES!

Musée national Picasso-Paris
From 4 September 2018 to 13 January 2019

 

What does 'masterpiece' mean to Pablo Picasso? The exhibition “Picasso.

Masterpieces !” seeks to answer this question by assembling many of

Picasso's great works from around the world, some of which are being

exhibited in Paris for the very first time. Thanks to exceptional loans,

masterpieces from all over the world will dialogue with those from the

collection of the Musée national Picasso-Paris to offer a new interpretation

of Picasso's creations, with particular attention to the critical reception

of his works. Focusing on past exhibitions, reviews, and texts, this show

explores how Picasso's works have become, thoughtout the years, iconic

masterpieces. The archives of the Musée national Picasso-Paris play an

essential role in recounting this story.

EXHIBITION STRUCTURE

1.  LE CHEF-D'OE UVRE INCONNU

Achieving perfect beauty, the absolute masterpiece: this is the dream that the painter

Frenhofer, the hero of Honoré de Balzac's novel, Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu, pursued in vain. Published for the first time in 1831, the text was illustrated a century later by Pablo

Picasso, at the request of art dealer Ambroise Vollard. The theme of the painter and his

model which Picasso explores in his work represents the kind of ideal artistic vision which

leads to Frenhorfer's death as he attempts to portray the expression of a soul, to reach

perfection through a work of art. 

The artist at work is a running theme in Picasso's oeuvre. His many self-portraits, alone

or with a model, are also reflections on the creative process. One of the most prolific

painters of the 20th century, relentlessly seeking new modes of expression, Picasso

dedicated his life to a quest similar to that of Frenhofer. Through a selection of key

works, milestones of Picasso's artistic career, the exhibition "Picasso: Masterpieces!"

looks back at this journey. 



From the conditions in which the artwork was produced to the influence of its critical reception, the exhibition examines the events that helped make each piece an icon of art. Throughout the 20th century, from the academic  tradition to modern revolutions, Picasso's pursuits radically redefined the concept of the masterpiece. 

2. SCIENCE ET CHARITÉ

Science and Charité is one of the rare pieces from Picasso's youth which he kept for

himself, before it was donated to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona in 1970. Thanks to the

close relationship between this institution and the Musée national Picasso-Paris, this work

is now being exhibited in Paris for the first time.Picasso was only 16 when he painted Science et Charité

While studying at Llotja, theSchool of Art and Design of Barcelona, he chose to paint a theme popular at art shows and among the followers of social realism: visiting the ill. The artist combines images from his daily life with academic models. His father acts as the model for the doctor, and

the subject echoes a personal drama, the death of his younger sister Conchita in 1895. 

Sent to the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, the work received an honourable

mention, before it was awarded a gold medal at the Provincial Exhibition of Malaga. It

demonstrates the incredible technical skill shown by the young Picasso.

3. LES DEMOISELLES D'AVIGNON

When he discovered Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907, Georges Braque said, "It is as

though, with your painting, you wanted us to eat oakum or drink oil." From its creation

until its exhibition at the Salon d'Antin in Paris in 1916, the work evoked reactions of

indifference, incomprehension and rejection. 

An emblematic canvas of the pictorial revolutions of the 20th century, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was a foundational work in the bith of cubism. Jacques Doucet bought the piece in 1924 at the recommendation of poet André Breton, who was, at the time, one of the few able to recognize the significance of the acquisition. 

However, when the designer died, the work returned to the art market. It joined the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1939. This institutional recognition conferred upon the painting the status of a modern masterpiece, more than thirty years after it was first created. 

 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon no longer travels. The artist kept many studies for the painting

throughout his life which today shed light on the genesis of the work. These studies have become icons of the Musée national Picasso-Paris. 

4. LES ARLEQUINS 

The Harlequin figure, Picasso's nostalgic double, features throughout the

artist's works. In 1923, amidst the Return to Order, it embodies the classic

ideal which Picasso expresses in the genre of portraiture. The harlequin

theme, particularly appreciated by the dealer Paul Rosenberg, quickly

gained favour in the art world, even leading to a fund-raising campaign in

1967 to enable the city of Basel to acquire Arlequin assis.



 

Arlequin assis (1923) Pablo Picasso. © Kunstmuseum Basel

Picasso borrowed characteristics from the Spanish painter Jacinto Salvadó

(1892-1983) for these harlequins. From one piece to the next, the model

maintains the same costume and his poses are imbued with the same

melancholy. Picasso repeats and reworks these motifs throughout the series. 

5. LES BAIGNEUSES 

Pablo Picasso
On the Beach ( La baignade )
February 12, 1937 
Oil, conté crayon, and chalk on canvas

50 13/16 x 76 3/8 inches (129.1 x 194 cm The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976

On 8 February 1937, Picasso's birthplace, Malaga, was seized by nationalist

troops. In the space of just a few days - on the 10th, 12th and 18th of

February - Picasso painted three troubling beach scenes featuring dominant,

imposing bathers. He distorted their bodies and opted for a mineral palette.

The landscapes are reduced to just a few lines. The viewer's gaze is focused

on these monstrous figures, inspired by Picasso's conversations with

surrealists Man Ray, Paul Éluard and Dora Maar, with whom he spent the

summers of 1936 and 1937. 

Long kept in private collections, these three works have rarely been

exhibited. Representing a true series of masterpieces, they have been

brought together for the first time in France for this exhibition, thanks to a

partnership between the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, the Lyon

Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée national Picasso-Paris.

6. FEMMES À LEUR TOILETTE 

Femmes à leur toilette, a monumental collage created in the winter of 1937-1938,

is today presented for the first time since its restoration in 2018.

Choosing the traditional theme of hairstyling, Picasso stages three women

grooming themselves, evoking a series of romantic partners with whom he had

been close. The images of Olga Picasso, Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar

haunt the composition of this tapestry cartoon, the only one designed by the

artist, which he kept throughout his life. Completed at the Grands-Augustins

studio in Paris, the work directly recalls Guernica, created a few months earlier.

Picasso returns to the concept of a very large format and assembles on the

canvas a multitude of paper cuttings with varied motifs. The artist, who had

given up on the idea of including elements of painted paper in Guernica at the

start of the year, here gives free rein to this procedure inspired by the cubist

studies of papier collé.

Femmes à leur toilette  embodies the artistic revolutions that Picasso orchestrated throughout his life and is one of the masterpieces of  the Musée national Picasso-Paris. 

7. LA DANSE 

In spring 1925, Picasso and his wife Olga joined the Ballets russes in Monte

Carlo. Picasso's interest in dance, never waning since his participation in the

ballet Parade in 1917, is shown here in a troubling round dance, and recalls the

death of his friend, painter Ramon Pichot. Although each figure is represented

through its own visual vocabulary, the influence of surrealism can be seen

through the distortion of the bodies and in the composition, which evokes a

crucifixion, a favourite theme of the group. 

Exhibited in 1939, alongside Guernica, at the New York Museum of Modern Art,

La Danse remained in Picasso's ownership for forty years; the artist refused to

part from it despite keen interest from collectors. It was eventually acquired

by the Tate Gallery in London in 1965, five years after the museum's major

retrospective dedicated to the artist. This masterpiece of British collections

was presented at the Grand Palais in 1966, in the exhibition "Hommage à

Pablo Picasso", and is today on temporary loan from the Tate. 

8. LE FAUCHEUR

In 1943, Picasso chose the technique of assemblage to sculpt the original

plaster version of Le Faucheur, whose face is the imprint of a sand-cast mould.

Beyond this play on everyday objects, André Malraux saw in 



the bronze cast a true masterpiece, the very incarnation of the "act of death". On 19 November

1966, at the opening of the exhibition "Hommage à Pablo Picasso" at the

Grand and Petit Palais, Picasso expressed the desire, never realised, to create

a huge, monumental version of the work dedicated to Charles Baudelaire.

In 1968, under Malraux's initiative, the law on the gifting of artworks as

payment of death duties was established. Eleven years later, Le Faucheur

joined the national collections after Picasso's heirs consented to gift it to the

state. It is today exhibited in the very heart of the Hôtel Salé.

9. OBJETS 

Paper cuttings, iron wires and tablets... the pieces presented in this room

offer a new perspective on Picasso's artistic process. With just a few

gestures, the artist transforms everyday objects into artworks, combining

humour and poetry. In the majestic Vénus du gaz , the artist re-appropriates a

wood stove burner by placing it vertically.

Most of these objects were kept by the surrealist photographer Dora Maar,

who shared her life with Picasso from 1936. They were photographed by

Brassaï at Picasso's request. Then, in 1949, the art dealer Daniel-Henry

Kahnweiler included them in his work "Les Sculptures de Picasso." During

the public sale of the Dora Maar collection in 1998, these objects attracted

huge attention, Picasso's renown helping to forge their status as iconic

works which re-examine the notion of the masterpiece under a new light. 

10. JOSEP PALAU I FABRE 

« Mirar la producción de Picasso, descubrir su obra, tiene que generar

siempre, una euforia benefactora, porque él es, por encima de todo, vital »

(Josep Palau i Fabre, Barcelone, 16 février 2003)

"Estimat Picasso" ("Dear Picasso"), this is the title of one publication by

Josep Palau i Fabre (1917-2008), the Catalan poet and writer, who became

friends with the artist in the 1960s. He dedicated more than twenty works

to Picasso and gave him pride of place in his collection, today kept by the

Fundació Palau in Caldes d’Estrac, in the province of Barcelona. Within this

collection, the many dedications Picasso wrote to Palau i Fabre attests to the

close bond between the artist and the biographer. Through his publications

and collection, they writer offers a dual reading of Picasso's work, authoring

both literary and scientific studies that portray the Spanish artist as a genius

of the 20th century, and providing a glimpse of the private and everyday

creation of a masterpiece, as exemplified by the marionette theater made by

Picasso for his daughter Maya in 1942, exhibited in this room.

11. SCULPTURES 

In Cannes, Picasso enjoyed displaying his sculptures in the garden of the

villa La Californie which he bought in 1955. Photographs by David Douglas

Duncan provide an account of this installation which was only accessible to

visitors of the studio. The sculptures are pretexts for much of his technical

experiments as well as intimate works; as shown with Petit Cheval, created

from the legs of table for the Spanish artist's grandson Bernard Ruiz-

Picasso. 

It was only in 1966 that the general public was able to discover the full

wealth of Picasso's sculpted work, during the exhibition "Hommage à Pablo

Picasso", held at the Grand and Petit Palais, curated by Jean Leymarie.

196 sculptures were presented, revealing an immense variety of subjects,

materials and techniques. The event was extremely popular, and Picasso's

sculptures which had once dwelled in the shadows of studios, finally

acquired the public status of a masterpiece. 

12. LA CHÈVRE 

Between spring 2017 and spring 2019, the Musée national Picasso-Paris

is launching an international cultural event bringing together over 60

institutions within the framework "Picasso-Méditerranée". This collaboration

through the loan of masterpiece has facilitated dialogue between the Musée

Picasso in Antibes and the Picasso museum of Paris. 

During the summer of 1946, Picasso lived in Golfe-Juan, near Antibes.

Romuald Dor de La Souchère invited him to set up his studio in the

Grimaldi museum, where he was the director. The artist worked there from

September to November and, upon his departure, left 23 paintings and 44

sketches to the city. Twenty years later, Château Grimaldi became the first

museum dedicated to Picasso in France, contributing to the artist's renown. 

Of the works produced in Antibes, La Chèvre is a majestic representation of

an important animal in Picasso's bestiary. As though incomplete, somewhere

between a sketch and a painting, the animal's body combines realist drawing

and cubist geometrization. 

After the creation of this unique masterpiece, the goat as a motif, inhabiting

the landscapes of Bacchanalia and a symbol of the years in the south of

France, becomes one of the emblems of Picasso's work. 

13. LITHOGRAPHIES 

The collaboration between Picasso and lithographer Fernand Mourlot began

in Paris in 1945, in a printing studio on Rue de Chabrol. Their conversations

led to the creation of the famous  



Colombe  which, after being spotted by the poet Aragon in 1949, 
became a symbol of peace printed in millions of copies found 
across the entire world. In the printer's studio, the collaborations

continued. 

In 1948, Mourlot printed 215 of Picasso's plates for the book,

Le Chant des morts by Pierre Reverdy, a masterpiece of book illustration.

The two men pushed the boundaries of lithography and embarked on an

unprecedented exploration of poster art. The lithographic stones on which

the two men worked as well as the tools and souvenirs of these experiments,

are today exhibited for the first time. 

In 1970, Fernand Mourlot published the catalogue "Picasso Lithographe."

The work reveals the abundance of Picasso's research on prints and his

virtuosity in the art of duplication; his printed images rank among his

masterpieces.

14. AVIGNON 

From May to October 1970, the Palais des Papes in Avignon dedicated a

first exhibition to Picasso. Designed by the publisher Christian Zervos and

his wife Yvonne, who died a few months before its opening, the project

inventoried the artist's creations between the years 1969 and 1970. On 23

May 1973, Jacqueline Roque opened a second exhibition at the Palais des

Papes, "Picasso 1970-1972", one month after the artist's death. The works

exhibited received virulent criticism; some were referred to as 'scribbles.'

In the 1980s, however, new interpretations of Picasso's last paintings

emerged. As they became compared to the works of such artists as Francis

Bacon and David Hockney, art historians began to reassess their value.

15. EPILOGUE

For the writer and art historian Pierre Daix, Rembrandt and Picasso are

united by an "ancient intimacy." Traces of Rembrandt (1606-1669) are

found throughout the Spanish artist's career, from his works on

Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu in the 1930s to the prints he focused on at the end of his

life. Beginning in the 1960s, Picasso quoted Rembrandt in his musketeers

motif. Picasso's dedication to engraving, which he pursued intensely in

his last studio, was largely feuled by references to the great master of the

technique. For Picasso, Rembrandt represented at once a guardian figure

and a rival from a bygone century who epitomized a creative genius. His

reflections on the self-portrait, a genre that Rembrandt explored throughout

his life and which characterizes over 80 of his pieces, is a clear inspiration in

the last works of the Spanish artist. In 1972, a few months before his death,

Picasso paid tribute to the Dutch master in his ultimate masterpieces. Both

artists are brought together here, a presage to the exhibition "Les Louvre de

Picasso" at the Louvre-Lens in 2020.