50 years after his death, Picasso is more alive than ever

Today, 8 April 2023, marks half a century since the death of Pablo Picasso. We review some of the exhibitions dedicated to the painter that are being held -or will be held- in 2023.

Source: various museums · Image: Left: Pablo Picasso in 1908. Photo by RMN-Grand Palais // Right: Pablo Picasso in 1962. Source: Vea y Lea, Argentina.

Since February 8, the Musée de l’Homme-Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris is presenting “Picasso and the Prehistory”, an exhibition that includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics and engraved pebbles. And since February 19, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel is hosting “Picasso. The Artist and the Model: Last Paintings”, presenting a selection of ten late paintings showing images of artist and model. From 17 March to 18 June 2023, the Albertina Museum in Vienna shows 18 paintings from the Museum’s own collection and a total of over 70 works by “a man who, even during his own lifetime, had become the archetype of the modern artist”, as the Museum states in a press release. Starting today, the Musée Picasso, Antibes, is presenting “Picasso 1969-1972: The End of the Beginning”. From July 13 to October 15, 2023, the Collection Lambert in Avignon will present “Picasso à la Collection Lambert en Avignon 50 ans après”.

Of course, several museums in Spain (Picasso’s native country) are dedicating exhibitions to the artist. From March 23 to June 25, the Museo de Bellas Artes de A Coruña (the city where Picasso lived from 1891 to 1895, before moving to Barcelona) presents “Picasso, blanco en el recuerdo azul” (Picasso, white in blue memory). From March 29 to July 2, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, presents “Picasso. Masterpieces from the Nahmad Collection.” Starting today and until September 10, the Museo Picasso in Málaga organizes the exhibition “Picasso: matter and body”. From June 13 to September 17, 2023, the Museo Nacional del Prado hosts “Picasso – El Greco”, an exhibition that examines the relationship between these two revolutionary painters. From 4 October 2023 to 14 January 2024, the Museo Thyssen in Madrid presents “Picasso. The Sacred and the Profane”, an exhibition that includes around 30 works. And from 14 November 2023 to 4 March 2024, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía will host “Picasso 1906. The Great Transformation”, an exhibition that “aims to shed light on the artist’s attention to the body and its construction from a contemporary perspective around 1906, a key year in Picasso’s production and life.”

In America, the Mint Museum, Charlotte, is hosting “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds” (February 11 – May 21, 2023), an exhibition of more than 40 works spanning Picasso’s full career. From May 12 to August 6, 2023, the Guggenheim Museum will present “Young Picasso in Paris”, defined as “an intimate exhibition comprising a total of ten paintings and works on paper executed during Pablo Picasso’s introduction to the French capital”. From October 1, 2023, to February 10, 2024, the Museum of Modern Art will present “Picasso in Fontainebleau”, an exhibition “examining three months in a legendary artist’s career, when he created an astonishingly varied body of work between July and September 1921 in the town of Fontainebleau, France”, as the MoMA states in a press release. And from October 6, 2023, to January 7, 2024, the recently reopened Hispanic Society Museum & Library will present “Picasso and La Celestina.”