Even during his lifetime he was a legend, an art icon, a myth. When the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France, on April 8, 1973, the world lost what was perhaps the most important artist of the 20th century. From Tokyo and Beijing to New York, Paris and Vienna, half the world is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the exceptional artist’s death this year.
Fortunately, the creator of paintings such as “Guernica” or “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, a key work of modernism, is not only one of the most creative artists in the world. He was also one of the most productive ever. In his more than seventy-year creative phase, the ingenious painter, sculptor and ceramic artist produced an incredible 50,000 drawings, paintings, sculptures, lithographs and ceramics.
There is enough material to celebrate Picasso in 2023 with around 50 special exhibitions worldwide. By far the most will take place this year in his native Spain.
At the beginning of the year, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid clearly showed that Picasso was even a stage designer and worked with the French fashion designer Coco Chanel. Meanwhile, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona is examining the influence of German art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweilers on Picasso’s international breakthrough.
More than 15 special Picasso exhibitions will be running in Spain later this year. In La Coruña, Galicia, where Picasso began his artistic training at the age of ten, the Museum of Fine Arts is showing “Picasso, white in the blue memory” until June 25th and refers to the influence of these youthful years on Picasso’s artistic development.
Meanwhile, from June 22 to September 17, Barcelona’s Design Museum is highlighting Picasso as a ceramic artist. Madrid’s Prado Museum explores Picasso’s fascination with El Greco. In the exhibition, the curator and internationally renowned Picasso expert Carmen Giménez primarily wants to show how the Mannerist style inspired Picasso to develop Cubism.
Giménez is also curating the large-scale special exhibition “Matter and Body”, which will focus on Picasso’s sculptural work from 9 May to 10 September at the Picasso Museum in Malaga. The exhibition will then be on view at the world-famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao until January 14 next year.
From November 14th to March 4th 2024, the Queen Sofia Museum is showing in “Picasso 1906” how the artist completely redefined the art experience and modern art. It was the year of his great transformation. Between May and January next year, the Madrid art center La Casa Encendida will be dedicating itself to Picasso’s last creative phase from 1963, while the Picasso Museum Málaga will be looking beyond this from autumn and showing the painter’s influence on later generations of artists in “The Echo of Picasso”.
“If there is an artist who defines the 20th century, who represents it with all its cruelty, violence and passion, its excesses and contradictions, then this artist is without a doubt Pablo Picasso,” said Spain’s Culture Minister Miquel Iceta at the presentation of the anniversary program. This also comes into its own at the special exhibitions in Spain this year. Those who cannot make it to Spain also have the opportunity to see more than 60 works by Picasso in the Albertina in Vienna until June 18th.