Picasso's Picassos: 200 works, mostly owned by the artist's family, that reveal a more personal, intimate side of the great Spanish artist.
It seems incredible that it is still possible to discover new aspects of an artist like Pablo Picasso, of such fame and so thoroughly studied. But that is just what happens in this catalogue of the large retrospective held in Milan, featuring 200 works, most of which remained in the possession of the Picasso family after the artist’s death in 1973. We do not know why Picasso kept these works for himself, rather than selling them: but as a result, there are pieces that have seldom been seen in public, including a number never before exhibited. Approximately forty of the works in this volume have never previously been published. Besides these family holdings, the book contains works from all over the world, from public and private collections, and illustrates all the phases of Picasso’s career guided by constant, daring formal experimentation: from the admirable early portraits to the Cubist masterpieces, the female figures of the 1920s to the works of civil and political commitment, and works on the themes of motherhood, family portraits, or the erotic paintings of the final years. The introduction is an essay of great critical value by the curator Bernice Rose.