An exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler on Picasso's last decade of activity.

Until May 1, 2023, Fondation Beyeler is hosting, as part of the international celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, the exhibition Picasso. Artist and Model, curated by Raphaël Bouvier. A small selection of ten late paintings by the painter belonging to the Beyeler Collection, the Anthax Collection Marx and other private collections will be presented on this occasion.

In the last decade of his life thenow over 80-year-old Spanish master continued his work productively. In his last period he often executed several paintings in a single day. Prominent among the many works created in the 1960s and early 1970s is also a substantial group of works in which Picasso intensely confronted the theme of the artist and his model. In these highly expressive works Picasso on the one hand investigates the image of the artist (of himself) and on the other the creative act and the process of artistic development.

Balancing different artistic codes, from self-portrait to stereotypical artist image and caricature, some paintings show the painter wearing a striped shirt, thus also evoking the image of Picasso already promoted to myth. Picasso often depicts himself painting live in front of the model, which is inconsistent with his typical mode of working based on painting from memory. The nude model, whose representation as well oscillates between idealization and caricature, is exposed to the artist’s gaze.

The series focusing on the painter-model relationship also raises questions about the man’s personal and figurative approach to the female body and its representability in today’s context.

Through individual paintings representative ofPicasso’s late work, the exhibition aims to explore the artist’s reconnaissances into the territories of the creative process, the relationships of gaze between painter and model, the representation of the male artist, and also the pictorial staging of the female model, subjecting them to a review of their relevance today.

Over thirty works by Picasso are in the possession of the Fondation Beyeler, which thus holds one of the most conspicuous Picasso collections in existence. Picasso is also the most represented modern artist in the Beyeler Collection. The works cover a time span from the Cubist turn of 1907 to the 1960s. Approximately fifteen other Picasso masterpieces from the Beyeler Collection and the Anthax Collection Marx are displayed in the rooms adjacent to the exhibition that house the permanent collection, offering a broad overview of Picasso’s output.

For info: www.fondationbeyeler.ch

Image: Pablo Picasso, The Painter and His Model (1963; oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm; Nahmad Collection © Succession Picasso/2022 ProLitteris, Zurich

An exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler on Picasso's last decade of activity.

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