Mantua and Milan will devote two exhibitions to Picasso and his status as a foreigner in Paris

Two exhibitions dedicated to Pablo Picasso, curated by Annie Cohen-Solal, will open in Mantua and Milan in September. It will begin in Mantua, at Palazzo Te, on September 5, 2024 with the exhibition Picasso at Palazzo Te. Poetry and Salvation, produced by Fondazione Palazzo Te with the collaboration of the Musée national Picasso-Paris and the artist’s family. Divided into four sections set up in the monumental rooms of Palazzo Te in dialogue with Giulio Romano’s frescoes, the exhibition will present about fifty works by Picasso, including drawings, documents, sculptures and paintings, some exceptionally exhibited in Italy for the first time.

“The relationship between Giulio Romano, Palazzo Te and Picasso’s art passes through the work on Ovid’s Metamorphoses that the Spanish artist executed at the request of Albert Skira in 1931 and which is exhibited at Palazzo Te,” explains director Stefano Baia Curioni. “But the questions and mysteries raised by the work of Picasso and Giulio Romano go beyond thematic affinities: both artists are ’friends’ of change and read metamorphosis as a dominant theme. Both extract nourishment and salvation from literature and poetry, together suggesting a way of participating in art and life.” It is in poetry and the world of poets that Picasso finds the means to overcome the obstacles associated with his status as a foreigner in Paris. The artist navigates the multiple tensions of French society using metamorphosis as a strategy.

Instead, the exhibition Picasso the Foreigner, promoted by the Municipality of Milan - Culture, produced by Palazzo Reale with Marsilio Arte and realized 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, will start in Milan, at the Palazzo Reale, from September 2024. The original idea for 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 the MNPP’s collections. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of Unipol Gruppo, main sponsor, and BPER Banca, sponsor.

The exhibition will present more than eighty works by the artist, as well as documents, photographs, letters and videos, from the MNPP and the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris: a project intended to open up more reflections on the themes of reception, immigration and the relationship with the other. Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, settled in Paris in 1904. Although France becomes his home and his fame grows beyond national borders, the artist will never obtain French citizenship.The exhibition therefore aims to follow Picasso’s aesthetic and political journey, to understand how he shaped his own identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant.

“The collaboration between Milan and Mantua in this double exhibition project is an extraordinary opportunity to delve into the complex figure of Picasso, an artist who was able to navigate through the rough waters of xenophobia and identity, finding in poetry and art a way to overcome obstacles,” said Tommaso Sacchi, Councillor for Culture of the City of Milan. “These two complementary exhibitions not only celebrate Picasso’s work, but offer us a deeper look at France, its tensions and aspirations. It is a bridge between two cities, two cultures and two visions of art that come together to offer the public an unexpected and meaningful Picasso.”

“Doesn’t the discovery of the artist’s hidden precariousness and the obstacles along his path,” explains curator Annie Cohen-Solal, “give us a brutal and little-known picture of common xenophobia, our contemporary, and ourselves? These two complementary exhibitions also become an X-ray of France, with the dreams it inspires, the defeats it imposes, and the demons that plague it. In times as chaotic as today, Picasso becomes a contemporary of ours: his example is a lesson in optimism, a model to follow, a drive for political engagement and artistic practice.”

“Marsilio’s role is to give space and voice to protagonists of the art world who can share new cultural and social insights with the public,” said Luca De Michelis, managing director of Marsilio Editori and Marsilio Arte. “We are happy to produce together at the Palazzo Reale in Milan the Picasso the Stranger exhibition, which is an absolute novelty on the national territory. However, Marsilio is first and foremost a publisher and in this capacity we have published the book Picasso. A Foreigner’s Life by Annie-Cohen Solal and the catalogs accompanying the two exhibitions in Mantua and Milan. The opportunity to participate in the realization, together with Palazzo Reale, of the conference dedicated to Picasso and Guernica held today in Milan and other meetings at the Biennale and at literary festivals is then fully consistent with our role as an all-round cultural operator.”

Thanks to the agreement between Fondazione Palazzo Te, Musei Civici with the City of Mantua, and Palazzo Reale, Marsilio Arte with the City of Milan, the exhibitions in Mantua and Milan, both with Marsilio Arte catalogs, provide an opportunity to discover an unexpected Picasso.

With the admission ticket to one exhibition, visitors will be able to access the other at a reduced rate.

Mantua and Milan will devote two exhibitions to Picasso and his status as a foreigner in Paris

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