Picasso @ National Gallery of Victoria
Picasso Love & War1935 – 1945
30 June – 8 October 2006
NGV International Melbourne
One of the 20th century’s most passionate and tumultuous artistic relationships between Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar is the subject of a fascinating exhibition exclusive to the National Gallery of Victoria.
Picasso: Love & War 1935 – 1945 has been organised by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Musée Picasso in Paris in collaboration with Art Exhibitions Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Curated by leading Picasso specialist Anne Baldassari, Director of the Musée Picasso, Picasso Love & War features over 350 works from public and private collections.
The exhibition focuses on the globally turbulent decade 1935 – 1945, the period of an extraordinary relationship between Picasso and Dora Maar, who first met in Paris in the winter of 1935-36. At the time Picasso was already an artistic phenomenon and Dora Maar was a highly accomplished commercial photographer and Surrealist artist.
Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director, National Gallery of Victoria says: “This is a great coup for Melbourne. Outside Paris this exhibition will only be seen at the NGV, no other venue in Australia. It is an indication of the NGV’s fine reputation for staging and managing international exhibitions.”
Picasso: Love & War documents one of the most creative and dramatic periods in the life of Picasso, renowned as one of the 20th Century’s pre-eminent artists of genius.
The exhibition reveals intimacies of a dialogue between two highly charged artists at a time of romantic connection. As their romance unfolded, Picasso celebrated his love for Dora Maar in sensuous drawings, prints and paintings. In turn, Dora Maar celebrated the couple’s intimacy through exquisite photography.
Tony Ellwood, Deputy Director, NGV says: “This survey of Picasso’s work is a rare insight into a particular time in world history viewed through the prism of art. Dora Maar was a great influence and the works Picasso created in the 10 years they were together are sublime and powerful statements in the history of art.”
From the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to the conclusion of the Second World War, Picasso: Love and War explores the creation of one of the greatest masterpieces of war commentary in the history of art – Picasso’s Guernica (Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid). While Guernica is a national treasure that never leaves Spain, the exhibition recounts, through Dora Maar’s extraordinary photo-documentation, the full story of the creation of this masterpiece.
In the wake of the creation of Guernica, Picasso painted, etched and sketched his powerful Weeping Woman compositions, among them the NGV’s own celebrated painting Weeping Woman 1937.
Following the traumatic years of World War Two the lives of Picasso and Dora Maar came to a final physical separation in 1945.
The concluding section of Picasso: Love & War examines the increasingly difficult position Picasso found himself in living under Nazi rule in Paris as a pro-Republican Spanish ‘alien’. During this time he produced some of art’s greatest still life compositions, creating a disturbing response to the shocking facts of the Holocaust.
Picasso: Love & War provides a narrative for the complex historical and personal relationship of Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. It explores the variety and depth of their moral, intellectual and visual tapestry.
Picasso: Love & War 1935 – 1945 is the third instalment in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, an initiative of the Victorian Government through the Victorian Major Events Company and indemnified by the Australian Government through Art Indemnity Australia. It follows the success of The Impressionists: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay and Dutch Masters from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The exhibition is exclusive to the National Gallery of Victoria. It will not travel to any other Australian venue.
The exhibition is indemnified by the Australian Government.
The principal Sponsor is Mazda Australia and the exhibition is supported by Singapore Airlines, Channel Seven, Herald Sun, Triple M, George Patterson Partners, Hotel Sofitel Melbourne, Novotel Melbourne on Collins, Tourism Victoria and City of Melbourne and Melbourne Airport.
A range of public and education programs will coincide with the exhibition.
Exhibition admission fees apply.
Adult $20 / Concession $16 / Family $50 / NGV Members $16 / NGV Members Family $40
Pre-book tickets through Ticketmaster on 136 100 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.au
Picasso: Love and War 1935 – 1945 is open daily from 10am-5pm (including Tuesdays).
NGV International’s Permanet Collection is open Wednesday – Monday 10am-5pm. Closed Tuesdays.
For more exhibition information, visit www.ngv.vic.gov.au.
