Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023
The 8 April 2023 marks the 50th anniversary since the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Madrid is set to host many of the activities featured in a programme put together by the French and Spanish governments to honour the occasion.
Organised with the support of renowned cultural institutions in Europe and the USA, Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023 features some fifty exhibitions and events which together provide a historiographical analysis of the artist’s work.
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain on 25 October 1881, and died in the French town of Mougins on 8 April 1973. One of the most famous painters in the history of Western art, his free, expressive, multifaceted artistic language continues to influence contemporary art and thinking.
Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023 seeks to showcase the career of the European artist who not only drew on his deep knowledge of heritage and the principles of tradition, but also on his understanding of classicism as an ethical value, in order to create iconic, internationally acclaimed works. Guernica, which has become emblematic of the fight to protect human rights, is an example of one of these pieces.
Exhibitions to mark The Year of Picasso
Picasso - El Greco
An exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death (Prado Museum. 13 Jun-17 Sept 2023).
The Last Picasso 1963 - 1972
A new review of the last ten years of the artist’s creative work by a contemporary artist. (La Casa Encendida. 19 May-17 Sept 2023).
Picasso vs. Velázquez
This exhibition is based on the relationship between the two artists, which includes graphic works by Picasso in dialogue with archival photographs, letters and audiovisual documents (Casa de Velázquez. Sept-Nov 2023).
Picasso. The Sacred and the Profane
An exhibition that shows how the artist approached the main themes and genres of traditional European art: history, religion, myths, portraiture and still lifes (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. 4 Oct 2023-14 Jan 2024).
PICASSO 1906: The Great Transformation
This exhibition showcases the artist's contribution to the birth of modern art from today’s perspective (Reina Sofia Museum. 14 Nov 2023-4 Mar 2024).
Lucien Clergue. Commemoration of Picasso’s Anniversary
Images by the French photographer, Lucien Clergue, and Brigitte Baer’s archive commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Picasso (Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa. April-June 2023).