An innovative art exchange program
His masterpieces have become icons of modernism. His enormous oeuvre is represented in nearly every major art museum in the world. He is one of the most frequently imitated and reproduced artists in history. In spite of this—or perhaps because of it—true Picasso aficionados don't have it easy. Though copies of his works and style can be seen almost anywhere in a sheer inexhaustible variety of forms, from computer graphics and cheesy hotel art to colorful umbrellas and desktop calendars, it is relatively difficult to find a representative and well-presented exhibition of Picasso’s lifework. Normally, a pilgrimage to the Picasso museums in Barcelona or Paris would be called for in order to view a comprehensive collection of his creations. But beginning this month, Picasso fans in Munich will be in for a real treat. For 15 weeks, a selection of works from the world’s third largest Picasso collection will be on display in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. The exhibition, “Picasso in Munich,” includes 180 paintings and over 600 prints and objects spanning the eight decades of his artistic career. The works will be sojourning in Munich as part of an unprecedented exchange between the Lenbachhaus and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. This impressive compilation of Picasso’s artwork is the product of one man’s lifelong passion. For almost 50 years, German factory-owner Peter Ludwig collected hundreds of the Spanish artist’s works. In 1994, Peter and his wife, Irene, donated 350 works of modern art, including many Picassos, to the city of Cologne for the purpose of opening a new museum, the Museum Ludwig. And in 2001, after Peter had died, Irene generously contributed another 760 of Picasso’s paintings, prints and sculptures. In exchange for part of the Museum Ludwig’s collection, the Lenbachhaus is temporarily relinquishing 65 of its prized Blue Rider paintings, which will be on display in Cologne for about three months. The Blue Rider collection in Munich, the pride of the Lenbachhaus, is the largest in the world. But the inter-museum swap is nonetheless a fair one. The Picasso exhibition is comprehensive. It narrates the artist’s entire aesthetic development, including all his styles—from Spanish Art Nouveau to Neoclassicism—and techniques—painting, sculpture, ceramics and prints. The Blue and Pink Periods are of course well represented, as are Analytic and Synthetic Cubism. After World War I Picasso came back down from the lofty heights of Cubism to reorient his works to the tamer, more representational style of Neoclassicism. Harlequin with Folded Hands, 1923, is one of the exhibition’s highlights from this phase. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and World War II he began integrating an element of Surrealism into his subjects, as in the disturbingly forceful portrait Woman with Artichoke, 1942. The sculpture Woman’s Head (Dora Maar), 1941, also dates from this period. Picasso’s later works held a special fascination for Peter and Irene Ludwig. In his late prints, represented here in incomparable richness in the cycles “Suite Vollard,” “Suite 347” and “Suite 156,” Picasso incorporated echoes of previous phases of his artistic evolution. Paintings from this time illustrate the artist’s undying creative impulse and capacity for innovation. A late self-portrait of 1970 entitled Portrait of a Man with a Hat features dark colors, obscure shapes and unsettling contrasts, reflecting the then-octogenarian’s preoccupation with mortality. His depiction of himself, in a state somewhere between life and death, is not only prophetic—he was to die three years later—but also deeply poetic. The many biographies of Picasso and countless publications of his art and its criticism bear witness to the intrigue and awe he has inspired around the world, and to the influence he has had on the course of Western art. Over time his name has become synonymous with creative genius. It conjures up powerful and contrasting images: enfant terrible socializing in Paris, bohemian in a bathing suit, passionate lover, communist millionaire, a 91-year-old overflowing with creative energy. Yet the long-lived, widespread admiration of and acclaim for the man-cum-legend Pablo Picasso have paradoxically made it difficult to know and appreciate his individual works. It is no simple task to see beyond the mammoth reputation, the bohemian biography, the Picassoid T-shirt on the person next to you in the museum. But, as the artist himself once explained to his lover Françoise Gilot, “I paint the way some people write their autobiography, the paintings, finished or not, are the pages of my journal. The future will choose the pages it prefers.” The unusually broad scope of the current exhibition at the Lenbachhaus not only allows the viewer to trace the self-narration of the artist’s life through his work, but also to witness the dynamic unfolding of a singular artistic vision. “Picasso in Munich” will be on view in the Kunstbau of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus from March 13 to June 27. The museum is open Tues.–Sun. 10 am– 6 pm.