© Sucesión Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Pending
Musée de Beaux-Arts of Lyon
26.11.2022 - 05.03.2023
The exhibition Picasso / Poussin / Bacchanals, hosted by the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon, is conceived as a continuation of the exhibition Poussin and Love, which is on show at the same museum and on the same dates. Picasso / Poussin / Bacchanales proposes to question the place of the legacy of the Frenchman Nicolas Poussin, one of the most outstanding exponents of the classicist school, in the construction of the Spanish artist's bacchanalian and erotic imaginary.
The Bacchanales of 1944 is the starting point for a reflection on Picasso's vision of Poussin's work throughout his career and, more specifically, in his interpretations of the theme of festivals and Dionysian love affairs from the early 1930s to the late 1960s. The exhibition will also make it possible to reread the works of 1944 within the corpus of works produced by Picasso during the German occupation of France in the light of photographs and accounts, revealing some of these compositions that have not been located, such as those produced in August 1944, when the Allied forces were helping Paris to achieve its liberation from the Nazi troops. The artist then made a sketch and a gouache based on Nicolas Poussin's Le Triomphe de Pan of 1636, reflecting the effervescent atmosphere of the city at the time.
The exhibition is part of the Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 project, a programme of more than fifty exhibitions and events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death, which will take place between 2022 and throughout 2023 at the venues of renowned cultural institutions in Europe and the United States.