Jil Sander Spring 2012 collection inspired by Picasso

When I was telling you there are no boundaries between art and fashion. It is the first time that the Picasso estate has allowed the use of the Picasso's drawings on the Vallauris ceramics made by the artist.  The result is stunning !

Picasso "treasure trove"

Last year, the media highly reported that the former electrician of Pablo Picasso, at the time when the artist was based in the villa "La California" in the south of France, was in possession of 271 artworks of the master estimated at 80 million $. True or false, the story was captivating, maybe because Picasso's son immediately felt it was a thievery. Here is one the most beautiful drawings from the treasure...

Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust fetches record $106m at auction

The beautiful painting fetched $106m at Christie's in New York last week. It had previously belonged to the late Los Angeles collectors Frances and Sidney Brody since the 1950s and breaks the record held by Giacometti's Walking Man I, which sold in February for $104.3m in London.

Another work by Picasso, Garçon a la Pipe, had previously held the record when it sold for $104.1m in 2004.

Frantisek Kupka: Art Works from the Pompidou Collection at Picasso Museum in Malaga

František Kupka took painting to its essential elements: the plane, line and dot. Over the course of his career he developed a highly distinctive and unique style that still defies any attempt to classify it due to its focus on science, philosophy and mysticism. In addition, Kupka’s work suggests new approaches to interpreting the birth and evolution of modern art. I think he's one of the most fascinating painters.

The exhibition held at the Museo Picasso Málaga brings together around 90 works, including oil paintings, drawings, gouaches and prints. They span the career of this unique artist, from his earliest academic studies to his pioneering discoveries within the field of abstract painting.

František Kupka. Art Works from the Centre Pompidou Collection is curated by Brigitte Léal, Associate Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne-Centre de Création Industrielle (MNAM-CCI), and co-produced by the Fundación Joan Miró in Barcelona and will run until 25 April so if you're in the South of Spain please go and let me know how it is !

 

More info on: http://www.mpicassom.org/

Picasso and Cézanne dialogue in Aix en Provence

Exhibition "Picasso Cézanne" - Musee Granet of Aix en Provence
Until September, 27th 2009

Aix-en-Provence, in the South of France, is famous, among many other cultural events, for being the city of Cézanne. This summer the Musée Granet dedicates a beautiful and rich exhibition to Cézanne and Picasso. Although it's kind of tiring to see such exhibitions (Picasso-Matisse in Paris at Le Centre Pompidou a few years ago, Picasso and the Masters in London at the National Gallery earlier this year, or more recently Picasso and Brassaï in Arles etc.), it was interesting to see so many famous artworks either by Cézanne or Picasso gathered in one place, most of them from private collection. It's obvious that Cézanne was the founding father of cubism but I would say the problem of this exhibition was to look for absolute parallels between both artists. If Picasso was a "sponge" of many movements in art history, the links that were highlighted in the exhibition didn't appear to be that obvious to me. On top of that, I felt it was more an exhibition about Picasso than a proper dialogue. What did you think?

It's worth going anyway, just for the beauty of the Arlequins below or the giant painting of Jacqueline, which is totally stunning !

In addition, the Château de Vauvenargues where Pablo Picasso and his wife Jacqueline lived between 1959 and 1965 opens its doors to the public only this summer, on the initiative of Catherine Hutin, Jacqueline’s daughter and the current owner. This château, built in the 17th century, was bought by Picasso in September 1958. It is where Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso were laid to rest, at the foot of the main steps on the terrace, when they died in 1973 and 1986. On top of their tomb is a bronze statue, la femme au vase, the original of which, made in 1933, was displayed at the entry of the Spanish pavilion at the international exhibition in Paris in 1937, where one of the Spanish painter’s most famous paintings, ‘Guernica’, was unveiled. It's a true opportunity to be able to visit this castle and feel Picasso's vibe.

Château de Vauvenargues - photos - Henry Ely - Aix © Droits réservés

Finally on Le Cours Mirabeau, the Conseil Général's art gallery showcases "le geste Picasso" which mainly features beautiful ceramics pieces (my favourites), movies and photographs of Picasso. It's worth going too and free.

To learn more: http://www.cg13.fr/ and www.aixenprovencetourism.com/uk/aix-picasso-cezanne.htm#pres

Quote of the day

"Bad artists copy. Good artists steal. "
Pablo Picasso

Picasso at the National Gallery in London

Picasso Challenging the Past

25 February - 7 June 2009

"Disciples be damned...it's only the masters that matter. Those who create" Pablo Picasso.

This quote perfectly summarizes the leitmotiv of the first Picasso exhibition by the National Gallery, in London. Was Picasso an admirer of the European great masters, or was he a competitor ? I think the answer is both.

Seizing on the signature themes, techniques and artistic concerns of painters such as Velázquez, Rembrandt and Cézanne, Picasso transformed the art of the past into his own form of expression. The exhibition features over 60 of the artist’s seminal works and focuses on the enduring themes of European art history and his own career, with sections on the self portrait, characters and types, the nude, still life, models and muses and the artist’s later ‘Variations’. Every major period of Picasso’s oeuvre is represented with loans from among the leading public and private collections of Europe and North America.

The exhibition makes subtle reference back and forth between the works of Picasso and the National Gallery’sown incomparable collection of Old Master paintings, which is on display in the main rooms of the Galleryupstairs.

I particularly enjoyed the Velázquez's interpretation of Las Meninas which reveals again how intelligent was the original painting. The young artist first saw Velázquez’s Las Meninas when he was fourteen. Over 75 years later, he completed a series of deeply personal interpretations of the same painting – three of which are to be displayed in London – including The Infanta Margarita, 1957 (Museu Picasso, Barcelona). Picasso’s most powerful tribute to Velázquez’s genius, Las Meninas (after Velázquez), 1957 (Museu Picasso, Barcelona) depicts the 17th-century Spanish artist toweringover an astonishingly complex scene, with the authority of the ultimate master.

A group of four ‘Variations’ after Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, painted between 1960 and 1961 (MuséeNational Picasso, Paris) provides another highlight of the exhibition. Now admired as a masterpiece, Manet’soriginal canvas outraged the 19th-century establishment.

All in all it's always a huge pleasure to see a Picasso's exhibition but I am slightly tired to see exhibitions of Picasso that put in parallel his inspirational painters. I remember well the Matisse /Picasso show in Paris at Le Centre Pompidou, a couple of years ago, and comparing Picasso with other masters seems like it's the easiest approach to his oeuvre.

This exhibition comes from Paris where it was held at the Grand Palais , and I believe it offered more space for the paintings.

To learn more: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Picasso Paintings Stolen in Switzerland

ZURICH—Two Picasso paintings worth about $4.5 million total have been stolen from a museum in eastern Switzerland, Agence France-Presse reports. The thieves set off a security alarm Wednesday evening as they left with the oil paintings Tete de Cheval from 1962 and Verre et pichet from 1944, but other details surrounding the theft are still fuzzy. The museum, located in Pfaeffikon, is offering an unspecified award for the safe return of the works.
From www.artinfo.com

The Circus of Picasso

Pablo Picasso, The Circus, (1933) - Drypoint on Monval Laid Paper.

The Pierre Gianadda Foundation of the city of Martigny, Switzerland, shows Picasso's works from a very uncommon angle. This exhibition will be shown until June 17, 2007.


Indeed, more than 300 paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures or photographs related to the topic of the circus are to be discovered.

Pablo Picasso, The Circus, (1933) - Drypoint on Monval Laid Paper

Send in the Clowns features a selection of video and graphic works exploring the theme of the circus in historical and contemporary art. The exhibition includes pieces by Picasso, Chagall, Dame Laura Knight, along with Columbian artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s highly entertaining video work, Flea Circus, from the AGGV video collection. The exhibition, presented in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, parallels the exhibition Circus Magicus, at the Royal BC Museum.
ArtistsPicasso, Chagall, Dame Laura Knight, Cardoso, Maria Fernanda


This exhibition takes part of the understanding process of the Spanish artist born in 1881 in Malaga and who died in 1973. From the blue and pink years until engravings of the 1960 years, the circus was a recurring topic in the life of Picasso. At the turning of the 19th century, Picasso would go to the circus shows in Barcelona. In Paris, for Picasso and his friends, circus would always be an occasion to meet and explore art. But it is only at the end of 1904 and 1905 that the circus would become the central topic of the compositions of this period of his life.

How was the portrait at the age of Picasso?

"The Mirror and the Mask, Portraiture in the Age of Picasso"


From February 6 to May 20, 2007, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Foundation Caja Madrid present a new exhibition which intends to study the portrait in the art of the 20th century. The portrait takes an important place in art. From the avant-gardists of the beginning of the century to the various artists of modernity, the portrait is an inevitable step in their artistic process.


The exhibition at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in the Spanish capital brings together 166 paintings and sculptures. Hugely influential names like Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Modigliani, Bacon and Warhol are brought together- offering an unusual chance to compare different approaches from different artistic movements and generations.

More info on:

http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/exposiciones/WebExposiciones/2007/retratos/index_ing.htm

Two stolen paintings by Picasso

Two paintings as well as a drawing have been stolen on the night of the 28th in the parisian house of the grand-daughter of the painter. Damage = 50 million dollars !


Will we ever see again "Maya with a doll" or "Portrait of Jacqueline", two paintings of Picasso stolent in the night of Monday to Tuesday in the Parisian residence of Diana Widmaier-Picasso, the grand-daughter of the painter, in the VIIth district of Paris? These works, from “huge”a commercial value, according to Paul Lombard the lawyer of the Picasso family, had “all necessary protections ”. Worldwide known and frequently published, it will be very hard for those who have stolen the pieces to sell them.



The painting representing Maya was stolen with its framework whereas the second painting (a portrait of Jacqueline, the second wife of Picasso, dating 1961) was cut out, according to him. Picasso's paintings, the most expensive artist in the world, has always been the target for robbers, particularly in 1976, when 118 works of Picasso had been stolen in a museum in Avignon. Twelve paintings, estimated at the time for 17 million dollars, had also been stolen on the Riviera in the residence of another grand-daughter of the painter, Marina Picasso, in 1989. They were found. Last year, in a museum of Rio de Janeiro, robbers had also stolen four paintings by Picasso as well as works of other Masters, for a total value of 50 million dollars.