Exhibitions
Art as inheritance: the intimate world of Picasso and Gilot's children
Promoted by Paloma Picasso, the exhibition brings together iconic and previously unpublished works that offer an intimate and exceptional look at the painter's family life.
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona has a powerful new temporary exhibition with Growing Up Between Two Artists in homage to Claude Picasso. The exhibition offers an emotional journey through the childhood of Claude and Paloma Picasso with their parents, Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, in Vallauris, in the south of France.
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Claude Picasso, 1953, ©Pablo Picasso Succession ©Maurice Aeschimann.
Iconic and previously unpublished pieces are presented—such as La Guenon et son petit , as well as paintings, ceramics, toys and family photographs—that allow us to delve into the most intimate and personal facet of the life of the renowned and iconic 20th century artist.
Pablo Picasso found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the warmth of his family environment and in the complicity of his closest friends. However, his work experienced significant transformations with the arrival of his four children —Paulo (1921), Maya (1935), Claude (1947) and Paloma (1949). Becoming a father revitalized, time and again, his creative energy. It is within this vital and deeply artistic context that the magical childhood of Claude and Paloma unfolds, marked by art, affection and freedom of expression.
Self-portrait with Françoise Gilot, Claude and Paloma, 1950, Private Collection, ©Pablo Picasso Estate ©Zoe A. Keller Photography
This new temporary exhibition tour will be on view until October 26th, where visitors will be able to discover the most human and emotional side of Pablo Picasso through the eyes of his children and the environment. The beginning is marked by La Galloise and the home, to move through Picasso and family life, where the Self-portrait with Françoise Gilot, Claude and Paloma from January 1, 1950 stands out.
The bond between Picasso and Françoise Gilot is essential in Growing Up Between Two Artists . The meeting between Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot (1921-2023) takes place in Paris in 1943, in the middle of a city marked by war. She, a young artist of only 21 years old, arouses the interest of the master, but it will not be until the end of the war that their relationship will take strength and roots.
Pablo Picasso, The Monkey and Her Baby, 1951, Private Collection, ©Pablo Picasso Estate.
In the first steps of their coexistence, Picasso, moved by the urge to escape the Parisian greyness, invites Gilot to embark on a journey through the south of France, a journey that will take them to visit villages full of light and silence. Finally, they settle in Vallauris, in a house called La Galloise, which will become a refuge, workshop and setting for a shared vital and creative stage. Room 4 of the Picasso Museum will be dedicated to Vallauris, where we will later meet Claude Picasso.
Françoise Gilot, The reading lesson, Private Collection, © Françoise Gilot.
Claude and I understood early on
that art would always be the ultimate equation, the
to ultimate reality. Nourished,
molded and formed in art as we were,
we inherited a deep bond,
an internal and instinctive awareness
from the work of our fathers, an intuition
in which rational intelligence has no place.”
Paloma Picasso
Edward Quinn, Pablo Picasso with his son Claude disguised as a musketeer, 1955, © Photography: Edwar Quinn.
