The Musée Picasso in Paris plans to lend works to around 40 exhibitions in venues in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus and Morocco that will present “a full panorama” of Picasso’s lifelong relationship with the Mediterranean, the museum’s director, Laurent Le Bon, tells us. Starting next year, to coincide with the centenary of Picasso’s 1917 journey to Italy, Picasso-Méditerranée will be a “global exhibition experience” including theatre, conferences, a website and a catalogue, Le Bon says.
The two-year celebration is due to launch at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples in April 2017 with a show dedicated to Picasso’s costumes and set designs for the Ballets Russes’ production Parade. This will include the 17m-wide, 11m-high drop curtain that the artist painted in Rome, and which now belongs to Paris’s Centre Pompidou. Other confirmed venues include the Musée Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco, the Benaki Museum in Athens, MuCEM in Marseilles and the Picasso museums in Antibes, Barcelona and Málaga.
The Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice is hosting an international conference on the theme this week in collaboration with the Musée Picasso. With talks by speakers including the art historian Oliver Berggruen and the Louvre curator of Near Eastern antiquities Hélène Le Meaux, Picasso and the Mediterranean: the Hidden Past; Italy (24-25 November) explores topics ranging from Picasso’s fascination with the ancient Roman frescoes at Pompeii to the reception of his work in Fascist Italy.
Meanwhile, the Musée Picasso, which has seen its attendance fall by 30% following the terrorist attacks on Paris in November 2015, is co-organising major exhibitions with the Musée du Quai Branly and the Musée d’Orsay. Primitive Picasso and Picasso: Blue and Rose are due to open in March 2017 and September 2018 respectively.
UPDATE: This article was updated on 21 November to include additional information about the Fondazione Cini conference.
