Paul Smith’s Playful Picasso Exhibition Highlights Celebration

Picasso 1973-2023

What would a Picasso exhibition look like if it was curated by acclaimed British artist and fashion designer Paul Smith?” That question is answered emphatically — and in living color — in Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light .

This can’t-miss exhibition, at the Musée Picasso Paris through August

27, 2023, is one of approximately 50 special events taking place around the world as part of Celebration Picasso 1973-2023 , recognizing the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death on April 8, 1973.

Smith’s art direction, in partnership with curators Cécile Debray and Joanne Snrech, showcases Picasso’s work “through a contemporary

The Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light, under the direction of Paul Smith at the Musée National Picasso Paris, from March 7 to August 27, 2023

© Vinciane Lebrun/Voyez-Vous

lens and underlines the continuing relevance of Picasso’s work in today’s world,” says the museum. It does so in a way that untethers Smith from the more traditional exploration or “academic approach,” he says. Instead — and noting he’s an art lover but in no way an expert — Smith emphasizes the exhibition is a “free expression” to showcase Picasso’s art in a new and exciting way.

This manifests in some superbly creative, visually stirring, whimsical, and memorable displays. Think: a room swathed in blue to set off paintings from Picasso’s Blue Period. A pink room for the rosehued Les Demoiselles d’Avignon . Blood red in the bullfighting room. A floor of green astroturf for an homage to Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe — apropos when you consider the painting’s name translates to Luncheon on the Grass

Picasso’s Paul en Arlequin hangs on a harlequin-covered background, its blue and yellow diamonds a near replica of the subject’s costume. His famous Bull’s Head sculpture, formed by the union of a bicycle seat and handlebars, is accompanied by a wall of handlebars. Picasso’s famed marinière Breton gets the celebrity treatment, with a photograph of the Breton-cloaked artist sitting beneath an umbrella of striped jerseys suspended from the ceiling.

Clearly, Smith had fun with this assignment. Or, as Debray calls it, a “joyful invitation to rediscover all of Picasso’s creative fields, painting, sculpture, ceramics and graphic arts, through the sharp and mischievous eye of a great contemporary creator.”

Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light also has its pensive moments; most notably where his Civil War-inspired works are exhibited alongside Mickalene Thomas’ Resist #8, a modern battle cry targeting systemic racism and police brutality. Thomas is one of several contemporary artists whose work is showcased throughout Celebration Picasso.