In a coup for Melbourne – and Australia – more than 70 Picasso masterpieces are coming to the NGV this year as part of a new, world-premiere exhibition.
From June 10 to October 9, NGV International will be transformed by the works of the revolutionary Spanish artist for the latest instalment of its Winter Masterpieces series.
Commandingly titled The Picasso Century, the exhibition has been curated exclusively for the NGV by two French art institutions: Centre Pompidou, which was recently revealed as the cultural partner of a new Melbourne art gallery, and the Musée National Picasso-Paris, dedicated to the 20th-century artist.
An all-time great, Pablo Picasso worked as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer. And he was a pioneer of cubism, an avant-garde art style where different views of the same subject come together, with abstract, fragmented results.
Across 15 “thematic” sections, The Picasso Century will trace his career in its entirety. But there won’t just be Picassos on display. To put them – and his extraordinary influence – in context, they’ll be shown alongside more than 100 works from his contemporaries, drawn from French national collections as well as the NGV’s own.
“The Picasso Century offers an original, broad approach that allows us to grasp the artist’s career in his artistic and cultural context, from his formative years to his posterity,” Cécile Debray, president of the Musée National Picasso-Paris, said in a statement.
“It thus offers an astonishing journey through the Parisian and cosmopolitan art scene of the 20th century.”
The exhibition’s development leant into his interplay with other artists, poets and intellectuals of the time, including the likes of French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, French artists Georges Braque and Henri Matisse, and American novelist Gertrude Stein. “Picasso reunited at last with Australia and his fellow accomplices and travellers,” said Centre Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon.
Also expect works by artists rarely exhibited in Australia, including Natalia Goncharova, Julio González, Wifredo Lam, Suzanne Valadon and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.
The Picasso Century runs from June 10 to October 9 at NGV International. Admission fees apply.
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