Arlequin Assis sur Fond Rouge, 1905, Watercolour and ink on cardboard, 57.5 x 41.2 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Museum Berggruen © Succession Picasso / 2018 ProLitteris, Zurich 2018 Photo: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB, Museum Berggruen / Jens Ziehe
In 2019, as an exceptional cultural highlight, the Fondation Beyeler is mounting a unique exhibition devoted to Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces of his early Blue and Rose periods. This will be the most comprehensive presentation ever seen in Europe of Picasso’s paintings and sculptures from 1901 to 1906, each one of which is a milestone on the road to recognition as the twentieth century’s paramount artist. Picasso’s pictures from this period are counted among the most beautiful examples of modern art and are certainly some of the most valuable art works anywhere in the world.
Femme à la chemise, c. 1905, Tate: Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933 © Succession Picasso / ProLitteris, Zürich, 2018 © Tate, London 2017
Nu sur fond rouge, vers 1906, Paris, musée de l’Orangerie, collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume © Succession Picasso Picasso / ProLitteris, Zürich 2018 Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de l’Orangerie) / Hervé Lewandowski
At the age of just twenty, the aspiring genius Picasso (1881 – 1973) was already engaged in a restless search for new themes and forms of expression, which he immediately brought to perfection. One artistic revolution followed another, in a rapid succession of changing styles and visual worlds. The exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler places the focus on the Blue and Rose periods, and thus on a central phase in Picasso’s work. It also sheds fresh light on the emergence, from 1907 onward, of Cubism, as an epochal new movement that was nevertheless rooted in the art of the preceding period.
Acrobate et jeune arlequin, 1905, Privatsammlung © Succession Picasso / ProLitteris, Zürich 2018
La Vie, 1903, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Schenkung Hanna Fund © Succession Picasso / 2018, ProLitteris, Zürich Foto: © The Cleveland Museum of Art
In these poignant and magical works, realized in Spain and France, Picasso – the artist of the century – creates images that have a universal evocative power. Matters of existential significance, such as life, love, sexuality, fate, and death, find their embodiment in the delicate beauty of young women and men, but also in depictions of children and old people who carry within them happiness and joy, accompanied by sadness.
Arlequin accoudé, 1901, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Loeb Gift, 1960 © Succession Picasso / ProLitteris, Zürich 2018 Foto © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Pablo Picasso, Self-portrait, 1901 / Musée Picasso, Paris
The exhibition features around 75 masterpieces on loan from major museums and private collections worldwide. In a multimedia space, fascinating and interactive books and a film allow visitors to immerse themselves in the young artist’s life and work.
The Young Picasso / Blue & Rose Periods
February 3 – May 26, 2019 / Fondation Beyeler
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