Picasso 1932: Love, Famine and Tragedy

Fascinating exhibition at Tate Modern focusing on one pivotal year in Picasso’s life.
 
I loved that this show was arranged roughly chronologically so it opened with two pictures painted on Christmas Day 1931 throwing you straight into the story of the strains in his marriage to Olga Khokhlova and his secret relationship with Marie-Therese Walter who comes to dominate the show.
 
I was going to do the exhibition without the audio tour as I am starting to find them distracting however I went back to get one as in this show you need it to tell you the story. 
 
I loved the section on his chateau in Normandy, Boisgeloup. It was nice to show works made there alongside a huge photograph by Brassai of the entrance to the studio as well as more works by the photographer which were the main way that these sculptures were known.
 
I also liked the large room bringing together works that were shown in Picasso’s major exhibition in June of that year. It was a clever way of bringing in earlier works as they gave a way of showing how far his art had developed. I found it sad to see the beautiful early portrait of Olga alongside more modern pictures of Marie-Therese. I wonder if she’d realised by then what was going on.
 
My favourite pictures were a series painted of the village near his chateau in the rain showing the church and it’s weather vane and outlines of the houses.
 
Closes on 9 September 2018
 
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