2023 was unofficially the year of Picasso as museums and galleries around the world united to celebrate the 70th anniversary since the prolific artist’s death. With just days until the new year, the festivities continue in a number of spaces, including Gagosian‘s 522 West 21st Street location in New York.
A Foreigner Called Picasso presents a comprehensive look at the Spanish artist’s oeuvre, from his early beginnings till his passing in 1973. Featuring myriad works loaned from separate institutions and private collections, the exhibition is anchored by the figure of the harlequin — Picasso’s allegorical avatar that appears throughout each period within his career.
The title of the show refers to Annie Cohen-Solal’s award-winning book of the same name, Un étranger nommé Picasso, published in English as Picasso the Foreigner, which recounts how the French police first opened a file on the artist when he arrived in the country around June 1901. Cohen Solal herself curated the show alongside Vérane Tasseau, which recount how the authorities kept a close watch on Picasso throughout his life. Running concurrent from painting to sculpture, Picasso is reframed as a permanent foreigner, as well as an alleged anarchist and avant-garde artist — “all labels that he seemingly ignored, but that undeniably affected his daily life and work,” according to a release by Gagosian.
“Cohen-Solal’s fascinating inquiry, via history and sociology, has produced . . . a conceptual revolution,” said Laurent Le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou. “With the new horizons that she opens up, we see the image of a genius who was long perceived through an artistic prism only.”
The exhibition is currently on view in New York until February 10, 2024.
Gagosian
522 West 21st Street
New York, ny 10011
