Royal Palace. Pre-sales for the exhibition “Picasso the Stranger” open from today
Milan, 26 April 2024 - They are now available on the platform marsilioarte.vivaticket.it tickets for the exhibition "Picasso the stranger", scheduled at Palazzo Reale in Milan from 20 September 2024 to 2 February 2025. It is also possible to book the visit for individuals and groups by calling +39 02 91446111.
Promoted by the Municipality of Milan - Culture and produced by Palazzo Reale with Marsilio Arte, “Picasso the stranger” is created thanks to the collaboration of the Musée national Picasso-Paris (MNPP), the main lender, and the Palais de la Porte Dorée with the Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration. The original idea of the project came from Annie Cohen-Solal, scientific curator of the exhibition with the special curatorship of Cécile Debray, president of the MNPP, and the collaboration of Sébastien Delot, director of collections of the MNPP.
“Picasso the Stranger” presents more than 80 works by the artist, as well as documents, photographs, letters and videos, coming from the MNPP and the Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration in Paris: a project that opens up more reflections on themes of reception, immigration and relationships with others.
Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, settled in Paris in 1904. Although France became his home, and his fame grew beyond national borders, the artist would never obtain French citizenship: the exhibition follows the Picasso's aesthetic and political trajectory, to understand how he shaped his identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant.
Palazzo Reale and Marsilio Arte have built a path towards the #roadtoPicasso exhibition which involves the publication of the volume that inspired the exhibition project and the creation of a conference at Palazzo Reale to explore the links between Picasso and Milan.
The volume “Picasso. A life as a foreigner"
The idea for the exhibition comes from curator Annie Cohen-Solal's book “Picasso. A life as a foreigner", an international success published in Italy by Marsilio and due out on 30 April 2024.
Stimulated by the many contradictions that she sees emerging, Annie Cohen-Solal launches into an unprecedented and courageous exploration of Picasso's unfathomable world to remove from the dust of the archives the secrets of a story yet to be told. Traveling through space and time we thus return to October 1900, when Picasso arrived in Paris for the first time from Barcelona; you cross the fascinating alleys of an unrepeatable Montmartre and witness the growth of a strategic talent, both as an artist and as a businessman, capable of naturally extricating himself from collectors and art dealers. And it is perhaps precisely this ease that makes Cubism perceived as a danger for the 'moral integrity' of the country: thus the war of good against evil, of tradition against modernity, of the France of the "good people" against the very dangerous 'foreigners'.
Fifty years after the artist's death, the author recounts his life and work in a fascinating investigation into censorship and persecution, artistic breakthroughs and passions. With unpublished documents and revelations that have never emerged before, the origins of the myth are revealed in the heart of Europe torn apart by nationalism. Information: marsilioeditori.it.
The “Picasso and Guernica” conference
In 1953, the great work of Guernica from the MoMA in New York, where it had been kept since 1939, was exhibited for the first time in Italy at Palazzo Reale. The operation took place at the behest of Picasso himself, which he found in the Hall of Caryatids its natural setting is still marked by bombing.
On the occasion of the finissage of the exhibition-performance "Memento amore semper" that the artist Ercole Pignatelli will dedicate to Guernica in the Sala delle Cariatidi, Palazzo Reale and Marsilio Arte promote and organize a conference dedicated to "Picasso and Guernica", scheduled for Thursday 16th May, from 10.30 to 12.30 in the Conference Room, Piazza Duomo 14.
A moment of in-depth analysis and discussion with national and international scholars to analyze the artist's work and one of his most iconic works, inextricably linked to Milan. Speakers include Stefano Baia Curioni, Annie Cohen-Solal, Cécile Godefroy, Domenico Piraina, Francesco Poli, Pablo Rossi, Francesco Tedeschi, Vincenzo Trione and Genoveva Tusell Garcia. The Corriere della Sera journalist Roberta Scorranese moderates.
Free entry upon reservation at the link picassoguernica.eventbrite.it.
The exhibition, an in-depth study
Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach and extraordinary research in the archives of the French police, Annie Cohen-Solal, author of the first biography of Jean Paul Sartre and student of Leo Castelli, has brought to light papers that until now had lain on the shelves for decades.
“I found documents, fingerprints and photographs that demonstrate how the police considered Picasso an alien and an outcast - explains Annie Cohen-Solal, originally from Algiers and currently a professor at Bocconi University in Milan -. All his life he was kept under surveillance for three reasons: he did not speak French and was treated like a foreigner; he was suspected of being an anarchist because he had frequented some Catalans and, finally, as an avant-garde artist, he had been rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts”.
Not even when he is consecrated as one of the greatest living artists of the time, Pablo Picasso will be considered a true French citizen. The exhibition explores how the condition of a foreigner influenced and shaped his identity and, consequently, forces us to reflect on contemporaneity.
“In my work it constantly emerges how Picasso suffered from this state of vulnerability and precariousness because he knew that he could be expelled at any moment - explains Annie Cohen-Solal -. However, precisely for this reason, while France barely continued to recognize him, he managed to protect himself by creating a network of powerful friends, collectors, collaborators and buyers throughout Eastern Europe who helped him exhibit in the most prestigious places."
No one had investigated this aspect of the artist's life: together with Cécile Debray, president of the MNPP and Sébastien Delot, director of collections and communications of the MNPP, the three curators will create a compelling journey into the life of Pablo Picasso. Paintings, ceramics, drawings, collages, prints, photographs, videos and documents that will allow the visitor to learn about Picasso's world, his life, his success and his relationship with women, the subject of critical research by the curators .
The collaboration with Palazzo Te in Mantua
Palazzo Reale with the Municipality of Milan and Fondazione Palazzo Te, Musei Civici with the Municipality of Mantua have entered into a cultural collaboration agreement to promote the two exhibitions dedicated to Pablo Picasso.
In Mantua, “Picasso at Palazzo Te. Poetry and salvation" held at Palazzo Te from 5 September 2024 to 6 January 2025.
The two exhibitions, both curated by Annie Cohen-Solal with Marsilio Arte catalogue, arise from the collaboration with the MNNP. A still unknown Picasso emerges, in particular resonance with our contemporary: the poet and the foreigner.
With the entrance ticket to the exhibition in Milan, visitors will be able to access the exhibition in Mantua with the reduced ticket and vice versa.
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Updated: 26/04/2024