Cubism and War: The Crystal in the Flame, Picasso Museum, Barcelona

Cubism and War: The Crystal in the Flame

Picasso Museum, Barcelona

20 October, 2016 - 29 January, 2017

Some 80 works are presented, all created in the period spanning from 1913 to 1919. The clear interconnections with the Paris avant-garde from before the war take on new relevance here, along with the consolidation of discoveries made during the war in work completed afterwards.

The feature artists in the exhibition are three foreigners based in France during the period, who due to their citizenship status were not obliged to participate militarily: Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Diego Rivera. Furthermore, the vital role of other artists like María Blanchard, Gino Severini and Jacques Lipchitz are explored, along with certain French artists who did not end up fighting, like Henri Laurens and Henri Matisse. These latter ended up doing some of their most experimental work during the period. The exhibition also explores the artistic response of two great cubists who survived their time in the trenches: Georges Braque and Fernand Léger.

During the war itself, from 1914 to 1918, a group of artists in the rearguard responded to the situation by channelling cubism’s burst of energy, linking the previous period of the avant-garde with the conflict itself. This was a highly positive, creative response to the urge to reaffirm a constructive path in the context of the war’s mechanization, responding to a need whose reparative urgency was deep and intense. The evolution of cubism during the Great War (thinking specifically of the movement in Paris itself under the imminent threat of chaos) towards greater control, coherency and integrity as the predominant values in cubist art, is still relevant today, a full century later.

The exhibition curator is Christopher Green, Professor of the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, a leading art history institution affiliated with the University of London.

PICASSO MUSEUM, BARCELONA

MUSEU PICASSO, BARCELONA

Montcada, 15-23 - 08003 Barcelona

www.museupicassobcn.cat

Picasso/Dali, Dali/Picasso, Picasso Museum, Barcelona

Picasso/Dalí, Dalí/Picasso

Picasso Museum, Barcelona

20 March - 28 June 2015

The exhibition examines, for the first time, the relationship between two key figures of twentieth-century art. It challenges conventional historical views of the two artists as isolated, mythical and politically opposed figures, who developed their styles independently. The exhibition contains works by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí (paintings, engravings and sculptures) from over 25 museums of art and private collections from around the world, many of which are only rarely lent out.

There was considerable contact between the two. Picasso supported Dalí during the young artist’s early career and in the 1930s helped organise his trip to America. After the Civil War, Dalí spoke and wrote about Picasso, describing his own works as a homage to him.

Dalí felt great admiration for Picasso but their relationship also involved an element of rivalry. There were a number of critical moments in its development. On his first trip to Paris in spring 1926, Dalí visited Picasso’s studio and viewed the works he was preparing for his next exhibition. On his return, Dalí began work on a major series of paintings that would reflect the impact this artistic encounter had on him.

In 1929 both Dalí and Picasso were exploring the creative and disturbing power of the dreamlike images of surrealism in their works. Between 1930 and 1934 their relationship was tied up with the surrealist movement.

The horrors of the Civil War moved both artists to produce powerful works reflecting theanguish of the human  condition. In the 1950s and afterwards the work of both artists began to look to the great art of the past, focusing on its most distinguished exponents, Velázquez in particular.

The consideration of these key points will follow a prologue based on Dalí’s perception of Picasso via his presence in art exhibitions and art criticism in Barcelona. The historical periods we have referred to will determine the structure of the exhibition, offering perspectives from which we can analyse various aspects of the work of these two twentieth-century masters.

Curated by: Juan José Lahuerta (until 2013) and William Jeffett

Organisation and production: Museu Picasso and Dalí Museum, Saint Petersburg, Florida

With the support of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, Figueres

PICASSO MUSEUM, BARCELONA

MUSEU PICASSO, BARCELONA

Montcada, 15-23 - 08003 Barcelona

www.museupicassobcn.cat