Deeply innovative, the work of Pablo Picasso has left its mark on the history of 20th-century art. This artistic genius revolutionized the relationship between art and reality.  

Influenced by the masterpieces of the old masters, Picasso always knew how to reinvent himself by pushing the boundaries of figuration. Tracing the major periods of his production, the gallery HELENE BAILLY is pleased to present a diversity of mediums: paintings, bronze, wood, drawings, and ceramics.  

The exhibition opens with a drawing from 1906, strongly influenced by the aesthetics of Picasso’s Rose Period. It is a preparatory work for the oil painting Le Harem, is a true masterpiece, is the culmination of which is one of the greatest achievements of 20th- century painting : Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, from 1907.  

With virtuosity, combining classical tradition and innovation, Le Harem showcases Picasso’s talent as a draftsman. The treatment of languid bodies and the freshness of the female figures pay homage to the Pompeian frescoes and Ingres’ Turkish baths, directly placing the Spanish painter in the continuity of the great classical masters. The grand history of art intertwines here with Picasso’s personal history, in which his encounter with Fernande Olivier, his muse and companion, profoundly transformed his palette. The colors lighten and warm, resulting in Le Harem, the painted version of our drawing, exhibited at the Cleveland Museum.  

The Rose Period gradually gives way to the African Period, during which Picasso begins to shape what will become Cubism. The winter following our 1906 drawing, Picasso embarks on the preparatory studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. In addition to directly confronting the viewer with prostitutes (the street of Avignon being a place of prostitution in Barcelona), the pictorial representation of the Demoiselles shocks the public of the time.  

The work evokes incomprehension and rejection, both due to its subject matter and its treatment. Perspective is altered (the faces are frontal and the noses are profiled), the bodies elongate and are highly stylized.  

We witness the beginnings of the Cubist desire to geometricize reality and the models. This is the beginning of Cubism, which Picasso develops, inspired by Cézanne (1839-1906) and accompanied by Braque from 1907 (1882-1963).  

Picasso extends this graphic exploration to three-dimensional objects. Our bronze sculpture Nu assis, dated 1908, is one of the first to be executed according to Picasso’s new interest in geometric forms. During this period, Picasso particularly emphasizes the intense contrast between the voids and solids of the material, abandoning the idea of transition in his works. Yet, even with these angular forms, Picasso manages to evoke a sense of delicacy and sensitivity. Additionally, the generous chest of the depicted woman and the slight twist of her torso bring undeniable sensuality to the sculpture.  

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 abruptly interrupts the momentum of Cubism. Many French artists, including Braque and Derain, are mobilized. Picasso, being of Spanish nationality, is not called up. Remaining in Paris, he redirects his work and gradually reintroduces classical representation of subjects in his artworks. Encouraged by Jean Cocteau, Picasso travels to Rome in 1917 to meet Serge de Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes. The friendship that arises between the two men leads the painter to work in the world of dance, creating set designs, curtains, and stage costumes. It is on this occasion that Picasso meets the dancer Olga Khokhlova, whom he marries in Paris in 1918. This period is marked by a «return to order». Picasso is said to have become bourgeois, residing on Rue de la Boétie. Far from the bohemian atmosphere of Montmartre and Montparnasse, he creates classical paintings and drawings, including our drawing Pierrot au loup.  

A few years later, between 1939 and 1945, Picasso «depicts the madness of men and expresses his revolt about the war in veiled words». Despite the possibility of going into exile in the United States or Latin America, he decides to stay in  France, where his work, his studio, Dora Maar, as well as Marie-Thérèse and Maïa her daughter, are located. During the harsh winter of 1941, as rationing is implemented, Picasso writes a tragicomic play and paints in response L’Enfant à la langouste. His work expresses the violence of a world at war through a harsh style with ferocious deformations, yet the life force of creation nourishes a hope that is embodied in L’Homme au mouton from 1943, a symbol of artistic resistance against the occupant.  

From 1944, as France is on the verge of liberation, Picasso joins the Communist Party. His work becomes more calm. His encounter with Françoise Gilot, who replaces Dora Maar in the heart of the painter, marks a renewal.  Our still lifes, dated June and November 1945, symbolize this rediscovered joy in simple pleasures and the return to life after the victory of May 8th, 1945.  

During the summer of 1946, Picasso is invited by the curator of the Château Grimaldi in Artibes to stay and set up his studio in one of the rooms of the castle. He paints about twenty works there, all evoking Mediterranean themes. Spending his summers in the South since his arrival in France, he settles down and becomes interested in ceramics while continuing to paint, inspired by the surrounding landscape and ancient culture.  

It is during this year that the long collaboration between Picasso and the Madoura workshop begins. Present in Vallauris with his partner Françoise Gilot for a ceramics exhibition, he meets Georges and Suzanne Ramié, the owners of the Madoura workshop.  

He then embarks on an intense ceramic production, renewing and deeply disrupting the creative language in this field.  It is in Vallauris where he meets Jacqueline Roque. She is 26 years old, while he is 71. It is love at first sight for the artist, who recognizes in her the archetypes of Mediterranean beauty: a sensual sculptural body, dark hair gathered in a bun, jet-black eyes. She reminds him of one of the odalisques in the famous painting by Delacroix, Women of Algiers.  

The charismatic artist quickly charms the young woman, and from then on, they will never be apart. Jacqueline watches over him in the villa «La Californie», located on the heights of Cannes, where the couple moves in 1955. Jacqueline brings him the momentum of youth but also the stability he needs to unleash his creative genius.  

This is evident in the extraordinary richness of his artistic production in his last twenty years: polymorphic, bold, innovative, eager for various experiments, more than ever imbued with the freedom so dear to Picasso. Jacqueline is for him the revealer and embodiment of all the subjects he wants to represent.  

Our unique work Profil de Jacqueline Roque, from 22 January 1956 illustrates this intense love. The enhancement with oxides by the master’s hand distinguishes it from the 200 copies in monochrome or white and red earthenware, simple editions.  

If Jacqueline is a recurring reference in the artist’s work, the dove is just as significant. Symbolizing hope in Christian religion, innocence in ancient Egypt, and longevity in China, it becomes a global symbol of peace in 1949. That year, Aragon asked Picasso to illustrate the poster for the World Congress of Peace in Paris. A few curves are enough to draw the bird, to give it that grace and childlike joy that Picasso managed to preserve throughout his life.  

Throughout his career, Picasso only portrayed people from his close circle: his wives, his children, himself, his poet friends, and sometimes his art dealers. He drew and painted from memory, which made it easier for him to translate his artistic vision. It is interesting to look into Picasso’s portraiture because the evolution over the years reflects the stylistic changes and aesthetic explorations of the painter.  

Picasso completely broke away from realism and traditional portraiture by developing what would become his signature style inherited from Cubism: visualizing both the front and profile of a person on a flat surface. For him, the image we remember of a face is not just a profile or a frontal view but a coherent microcosm.  

During this period of happiness shared with Jacqueline, Picasso tackled several themes that were dear to him: the painter and his model, the musketeers, portraits of Jacqueline, and self-inspired male portraits.  Painted in 1964, Tête d’Homme is a perfect example of the works produced by Picasso during this period. The man’s head is simplified and sketched with broad and vivid brushstrokes. Colorful areas construct the figure, which is then accentuated with black-painted details. In this artwork, Picasso employs various visual techniques to represent his subject. The face, shown head- on, is constructed with stripes, lines, and dots. The nose and cheekbones are shaped with green and red lines that create a stark contrast with the whiteness of the face, reminiscent of his work in ceramics.  

Picasso plays with our perception by offering multiple readings of this face. He depicts three intertwined faces that can be seen from different viewing angles. Through the facial deconstruction typical of the Cubist movement, of which he was a leading figure, Picasso provides us with a new vision of reality, inviting our imagination to come into play.  

In the same year, he created La Poupée, a unique testament to an emotional episode in Pablo Picasso’s life and his affinity for childlike play. This small female character with a clown-like appearance, drawn on cardboard in a colorful and playful style characteristic of the artist, was made for Lucia’s birthday.  She and the other children of her friends, the Dominguin- Bosé, loved Picasso very much, affectionately calling him «Padre Picasso». They always returned from the artist’s studio with fascinating anecdotes to share.  

When Picasso settled in his final residence in Mougins, his nudes gained volume and became increasingly massive, as evidenced by the Nude created in 1972. Depicting a woman whose forearm ends with a monkey’s head, this ink on paper perfectly fits into the erotic and mischievous universe of the artist. Picasso departs from academic nudes and the rules of proportion through the contortion given to this figure that coils upon itself.  

Proud to celebrate the work of Pablo Picasso, the HELENE BAILLY gallery invites you to discover PICASSO: CINQUANTENAIRE through a remarkable selection for the quality and originality of the presented artworks.  We invite you to immerse yourself in the vibrant universe of Pablo Picasso, a genius artist, and to celebrate his legacy. A revolutionary artist, nourished by the pictorial tradition, Picasso has shaken the history of art and accompanied the march of his century.  Enjoy your visit...