Picasso

Exactly half a century after his passing, the ALBERTINA Museum is commemorating the life and works of Pablo Picasso, that greatest and most influential artist of the 20th century—a pioneer of its first half with cubism, a central protagonist of symbolism during his Blue Period, a forerunner of the 1920s’ neoclassicist tendencies, and in his late works an ideal to be emulated by the neoexpressionist movements of the 1980s. His oeuvre, encompassing approximately 50,000 works, reflects the momentous political transformations and dynamic avant-garde movements of his era, which stretched from the dawn of the 20th century into the early 1970s.

The ALBERTINA Museum holds central works from all of the important phases of Picasso’s career: from the Blue Period painting The Sleepy Drinker of 1902 to masterpieces created amidst the Second World War and its aftermath and on to late works such as Naked Woman with Bird and Flute Player or his late graphic prints, which bear witness to his grappling with life’s ephemerality and “painting against time.” This exhibition shows 18 paintings from the Museum’s own collection and a total of over 60 works by a man who, even during his own lifetime, had become the archetype of the modern artist

On view from 17 March bis 18 June 2023 at the ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna.

ANNIVERSARY OF PICASSO'S DEATH

Pablo Picasso passed away 50 years ago on 8 April 1973, and with that, the painter of the century was gone. The ALBERTINA is commemorating the life and work of this genius Spanish artist with its Picasso. Marking the 50th Anniversary of his Death exhibition.

Holy Saturday this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the most famous and significant artist of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso. More than 70 artworks – ranging from the Blue Period to Picasso’s invention of Cubism, his interpretation of Surrealism to the phenomenally expressive later works of the 1960s – form a comprehensive ALBERTINA exhibition to show the long and varied career of this masterful artist. Paintings, drawings, ceramics and prints will be on display until 18 June.

Burial of the legend surrounded by loved ones

Picasso died of heart and respiratory failure at the age of 92 in his final home in Mougins. He was wrapped in a black Spanish capa that his wife Jacqueline had sewn several years previously in Madrid. Delivery of the treasured capa, similar to a travelling cloak, wasn’t entrusted to the postal service – it was instead the Real Madrid coach who delivered it personally, taking it with him from Madrid to Nice where his team were playing an international game. Picasso’s hairdresser picked it up from there and took it to Mougins: the cape was a symbol of Spain, which Picasso would never get to see again. He didn’t achieve his greatest wish of outliving Franco.

The Gendarmerie kept watch outside the mortuary. Aside from Arias, Picasso’s hairdresser, no one was allowed to see Picasso without permission.

Two days later, during a violent snow storm – an extremely rare occurrence on the French Riviera at that time of year – the body of Picasso was carried from Mougins to its final resting place at his château in Vauvenargues. The roads had to be cleared with shovels beforehand to make way.

Jacqueline and Picasso’s son from his first marriage (to Olga Khokhlova), Paulo, decided to bury him at the bottom of the stone steps leading up to the medieval château, with only a few people being allowed to attend. In addition to Paulo and Jacqueline was her sister Catherine, an old couple of friends from Barcelona (Picasso’s favourite city, which he’d last visited in the early 1930s), Picasso’s last secretary and his hairdresser, Arias.

Marie Therese Walter, Picasso’s lover in the 1920s and 30s, was just as unwelcome a guest as his children Claude and Paloma from his relationship with Francoise Gilot, Maya (from his relationship with Marie Therese Walther) and his grandchildren Marina and Pablito (from Paulo’s marriage).

THE FAUN'S TRUMPET - PABLO PICASSO AND THE MUSIC

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973. Musical motives can be found in his pictures to the very end.

You can listen to and read all episodes of the four-part series "The Faun's Trumpet - Pablo Picasso and the Music" in the ARD Audiothek or on swr2.de (in German).

Listen and read now