Picasso, Côte d'Azur Marilyn McCully, Michael Raeburn, Jean-Louis Andral

Catàleg de l'exposició presentada al Grimaldi Forum, Mònaco, del 12/07/2013 al 15/09/2013

40 years after his death in Mougins, Pablo Picasso is the focus of a major exhibition in Monaco this summer – and for anyone that’s at all interested in this monumental figure of 20th Century art, it’s really not to be missed. Divided into two parts, each with its own logical structure and even its own catalogue, the event focusses on two aspects: Picasso’s association with the Riviera; and the vast collection built up by the Nahmad family. Organised in two concentric loops, the exhibition once more demonstrates the brilliant planning that the Grimaldi forum does so well. lived in or stayed at. With contemporary photos of Juan-les-Pins, Cap d’Antibes, Antibes, Mougins, and Monaco, we’re given a very clear impression of the area at the time, and the ways that the scenery and light impacted Picasso’s art. For example, there’s a beautiful series of paintings of the Esterel with forest fires. He painted scenery, bathers, and classical themes like the Minotaur. The best thing about this exhibition is it puts the Picasso works of 1946 in Antibes into perspective – while he was there for several months, Picasso painted a whole series of mainly blue and yellow images of beach and sea scenes, and they were left to become a museum collection. They are very fine, but the tendency can be to see this as a huge part of Picasso’s Riviera work, when in fact it is only a tiny phase. works from throughout Picasso’s career. One of the most captivating is a sketch of shepherd and sheep, drawn when he was still a teenager. With such perfect draftsmanship, is it any wonder he started to explore other ways of representing the things he saw? Although Picasso never went to abstraction, he certainly stretched the limits of figurative work, for example by presenting the same object from several angles in one painting. The exhibition is grouped into a number of themes, including still lifes, classical, the seated woman, versions of “Les Femmes d’Alger” and of “Dejeuner sur L’Herbe”, the Artist in his studio… in short a representative and thorough sampling of some of his finest works and themes. brought a kind of studied casualness to his images – wild colours and squiggles that effortlessly convey his sense of humour. But this is the greatest strength of this show - it pulls together works from throughout his career in enough numbers to be meaningful.

Donatiu dels autors

R. 2013/199