Portál Pražana
Collection of Pablo Picasso's etchings that are exhibited for the first time in the Czech Republic
The extensive graphic collection Passion and Guilt by the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso are on exhibit in Museum Kampa until the 15th of January 2019. The works, which were created in the 1930s, are on loan from the renowned Museo Reina Sofía (Queen Sofía Museum) in Madrid, Spain. They can be seen in the Czech Republic for the first time ever. The cycle is a collection of one hundred works that the artist compared to a diary, reflecting on his extraordinary life story.
Great value of emotions
The collection is highly valued for its autobiographical expression of emotions. At the time when these works were created, Picasso was in the midst of a divorce from his first wife, Russian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. Simultaneously, he was starting a new relationship with the young Maria-Thérèse Walter. The prints reflect Picasso’s erotic and artistic obsessions, marital troubles, passion and love, but also the increasingly bleak political situation in Europe. In addition, the artwork also contemplates the meaning of art.
"Rather than a hundred individual etchings, it is a unified work of art representing autobiographical narration in painting during a particular period, which Picasso himself described as one of the most difficult times of his life”, said Fernando Castro Borrego, the curator of the exhibition.
The collection is also valuable as it captures the spirit of the re-emergence of Cubism. However, it also shifts to the classical representation of the figure. The etchings depict women, men and various forms of Greek mythology.
La Suite Vollard
Picasso’s close friend and confidant, the gallery-owner and art dealer Ambroiss Vollard, commissioned this suite of one hundred etchings. And so, the graphical collection is named after the man who commissioned it - La Suite Vollard. The collection is divided into several sections called Miscellaneous, Sculptor’s Studio, Battle of Love, Minotaur, Rembrandt, Blind Minotaur, and Portraits of Ambroise Vollard.
Do not miss this unique opportunity to see the famous Picasso in such a large collection here in Prague, without having to travel abroad.
Pablo Picasso
He achieved his fame in the early 1930s. His first retrospective exhibition took place in Paris’s Galeries Georges Petit in 1932, where 225 paintings, seven statues and six illustrated books were exhibited. The author was 50 years old at the time. As his early paintings were selling for the record prices despite the Great Depression, a poor Spanish immigrant was turning into an international star.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Open until: 15/01/2019
Venue: Museum Kampa, U Sovových mlýnů 2, Praha 1
Opening times: Monday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm