Exhibition
Picasso and the Mediterranean
2 Jun 2017 – 1 Oct 2017
Picasso's artistic work was closely linked to the Mediterranean culture.
About
With around 40 etchings, painter's books, lithographs, linocuts, paintings and ceramics from the collections of the Pablo Picasso Münster Art Museum, the exhibition reflects the various mentalities and influences of the Mediterranean in the work of the Spaniard.
Picasso was born in 1881 on the western Mediterranean coast on the Costa del Sol in Málaga. The Andalusian port city is an example of the cultural diversity of the Mediterranean region. Founded by the Phoenicians, later part of the Roman Empire, occupied by the Moors in the 8th century and reconquered by Catholic kings during the Reconquista at the end of the 15th century, Málaga is a melting pot Of cultures, In which ancient, Christian, and Islamic influences overlap, fertilize and supplement. In this context, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who was a friend of Picasso, characterized the Spanish painter as "Roman in spirit and Arabic in rhythm".
Around the turn of the century, Picasso moved to Barcelona, whose architecture, literature and fine arts were determined by the "modernism", a specifically Catalan expression of art nouveau. Picasso has been in contact with a variety of artists and has his first solo exhibition at the famous artist's café "Els Quatre Gats" (The Four Cats).
Picasso's Italian journey in 1917 marked the beginning of his intense artistic occupation with antiquity, In which he was influenced by antique sites as well as by motifs of Greek-Roman mythology. The results of this work are documented by "Ovid's Metamorphoses" and various Minotaurs from his famous etching series Vollard.
Between 1919 and 1939, Picasso spent almost every summer on the Côte d'Azur, before finally moving his food point to the Mediterranean coast from the post-war period. In his studios in Vallauris and Cannes, he created a late work, characterized by cheerful life, whose pictorial worlds describe a Mediterranean idyll. The exhibition illustrates this creative phase with ceramics and vases, color linel sections and lithographs such as the "Two Women on the Beach" (1956).
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Picasso's journey to Italy in 1917, Picasso's engagement with the art and culture of the Mediterranean is celebrated in more than 40 exhibitions in seven different countries. In addition to the Picasso museums in Paris, Antibes, Barcelona and Málaga, the Musée Mohammed VI in Rabat, the Benaki Museum in Athens and the MuCEM in Marseille are among the participating museums. With this thematic inventory, Münster is joining the international celebrations for this anniversary.