Art Of The Day Weekly

Picasso comes back to Paris

Following five years of works and a last straight line to meet the deadline, including a much commented change of president when Anne Baldassari was fired and replaced by Laurent Le Bon, the musée Picasso will finally reopen on 25 October. It was postponed various times, but the date was too precious to be missed: indeed it is the anniversary of the birth in Malaga, in 1881, of a giant of 20th century art. The exhibit space has been tripled and enriched with an auditorium. But the itinerary is somewhat puzzling. There are very few indications and a choice to combine a chronological and themed approach. The first room is the perfect example, with works from the artist’s youth next to the Jeune Peintre, Picasso’s last work, painted in the spring of 1972. The works are hung according to the emotion and the “pure” aesthetic shock they give, something like what the museum of quai Branly did. But this is at the cost of any pedagogical approach, considered a bit old fashioned? The sheer number of works, a result of the colossal donation in 1979, allows the visitor to follow all the artist’s itinerary, scattering icons throughout the rooms – the Flûte de Pan, the portraits of Olga and Dora Maar, the Acrobate, the Chèvre, the Massacre en Corée or the Tête de taureau (the famous combination of a bicycle seat and handle bar, which one can easily miss since it hangs high on the wall). Not to mention Picasso’s personal collection: his Cézannes, Renoirs, Matisses and Derains, his African and Oceanian masks, which all enjoy a beautiful display on the last floor.
• Le Musée national Picasso (5, rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris) will reopen to the public on 25 October 2014. Catalogue Flammarion.

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