2023 was the year of Pablo Picasso, as private collectors and global institutions banded together to host a series of touring exhibitions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Spanish artist’s death. For those who could not venture great distances to see his work in person, there is a new online portal containing photographs, paintings and sculptures detailing Picasso’s oeuvre, including works previously unseen by the public.
The archive was released courtesy of the Picasso Museum in Paris, containing thousands of interviews, essays, artworks and images aimed at researchers and in-resident artists, but to which can equally enjoyed by everyday fans alike. There’s arguably no artist who has had a bigger impact on shaping modern art than Picasso over the past century. Alongside his contemporaries in Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Alberto Giacometti, Picasso sourced and dismantled the traditions of art history through the evolution of his work, drawing inspiration from a variety of cultures — from folkloric African sculpture, the Bohemian subject matter of 19th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to ancient Greek mythology and Impressionism.
Both Gagosian and Almine Rech had recently hosted exhibitions on Picasso late last year, the former detailing the allegorical avatar that reappeared throughout the Spanish artist’s career; while the latter, displaying works by contemporary artists who have been influenced by Picasso, including Urs Fischer, Claire Tabouret, David Hockney and George Condo.
