One of the most important and well-known artists in history — Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso — will have his impact celebrated in a huge exhibition coming to the National Gallery of Victoria in June.
70 of the cubist and surrealist artworks will be on display at the NGV from June 10 as part of the Winter Masterpieces program, along with more than 100 works by 50 of Picasso’s contemporaries.
Titled The Picasso Century, the large scale exhibit will chart Picasso’s impact on the 20th century through his relationships with other artists, poets and intellectuals, as well as the impact of the century’s events on him.
The show will consist of 13 sections that will encompass the different themes of Picasso’s career — from his relationship with communism to the creation of cubism which the famed artist pioneered along with French painter Georges Braque.
Considered by many the ‘experiment’ that most radically transformed 20th-century art, Cubism saw Western art move away from representing likeness and, among many innovations, introduced multiple and simultaneous perspectives into a composition, resulting in the style’s recognisable fragmented imagery.
Attendees can expect to see some of Picasso’s most well-known pieces such as ‘Reclining Woman’ (1932), ‘The Violin’ (1914) and ‘Portrait of a Woman’ (1938).
Works from Braque, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse and Dorothea Tanning will also be on display as well as pieces from Natalia Goncharova, Wifredo Lam and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. The exhibition will also shed light on the Spanish artist’s interactions with intellectuals André Breton, Georges Bataille and Gertrude Stein.
Known for also being an accomplished sculptor, The Picasso Century will also include sculptures created by the artist who has cemented himself as nothing short of a genius on the timeline of art history.
Didier Ottinger, the show’s curator and the deputy director of France’s National Museum of Modern Art told The Guardian, “This show is about how a genius like Picasso could become a genius – he was in touch with everyone. The purpose of this show is to see Picasso’s work develop, from when he arrived in Paris as an impoverished artist, to the end of his life when he was living in the south of France.”
The Picasso Century will be on display from Friday, June 10–Sunday, October 9, 2022 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the NGV website.
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