The Paris Picasso Museum currently has a temporary exhibition about Picasso’s modernity in image construction, and specifically his inspiration in other works of art…

While he definitely created his own style, Picasso often clearly revealed his references in his work. Both avant-garde and conscious of a long pictorial tradition (that he was wary of), Picasso was a frequent visitor to the Louvre and collected lots of postcards, photos and posters of works that resonated with him.

Building on his influences, Picasso wouldn’t reference them directly, but rather deconstruct them in paintings with hybrid forms and construction.

The Picasso: Consuming Images exhibition shows how these source images were used in the painter’s work, with a presentation divided into four themes: the musketeer, the voyeur, the Minotaur and the hero.

In all, the exhibition presents 87 works (of which 55 are by Picasso), close to 200 pieces of documentation (books, postcards, photos…) and includes works loaned from 50 institutions including the Louvre, Pompidou Centre, Quai Branly Museum, the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and others.

Linked with the exhibition, there is a special visit called ‘Chasseurs d’images‘ for families (in French, of course), and a talk is being organised with author Jérémie Koering on the 4th September at 6.30pm.

French-speakers might also like to listen to a programme on the France Culture national radio (43′) which talks of the exhibition and Picasso’s frenetic consumption of images. It also includes the reading of part of an interview that Picasso gave in 1923, an audio extract by Peter Read, art and French literary professor at the University of Kent, and a listen to a track called Auto Icon by Flora Hibberd.

A catalogue of the exhibition (448 pages, approx. 250 illustrations) is available here at your local Amazon for around 50€.

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The Picasso: Consuming Images exhibition is at the Picasso Museum (here) until 15th September 2024

Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am-6pm

Admission: 16€ / 12€

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Une publication partagée par Musée national Picasso-Paris (@museepicassoparis)

To check our the English press release for the exhibition, simply click the ‘⇵’ button at the bottom right of the image below.