Pablo Picasso's art and Gertrude Stein's poetry in dialogue at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris

Within the program of the Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, an initiative promoted by the Governments of Spain and France that pays tribute to the artist on the 50th anniversary of his death, the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris) presents the exhibition Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. The Invention of Language, which will be open from the 13th of September to th 28th of January 2024.

Curated by art historian Assia Quesnel and the director of the Musée national-Picasso Paris, Cécile Debray, the exhibition contains 26 works from the museum's collection along with pieces from various collections, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

This exhibition highlights the deep friendship that brought Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso together, especially during the heroic years of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, as they explored their respective literary and pictorial practices.

Their mutual exchange was fundamental in the genesis of Cubism, which is characterized by the analytical decomposition of the objects depicted, elaborating a new pictorial system on the analysis of the functioning of language itself. Both creators, pioneers in their respective fields, contributed decisively to the redefinition of the representative avant-gardes of the first half of the 20th century, contributing to the formulation of a new code for describing the world.

The writer Gertrude Stein, a Jewish immigrant of American origin and homosexual, found in the vibrant Parisian scene of the rue de Fleurus an ideal living environment. She moved in shortly after the arrival of Picasso in 1901 and together they established themselves as essential figures in the cultural life of Paris, of Parisian bohemia and of the cultural avant-garde.

The exhibition Gertrude Stein and Picasso. The Invention of Language provides an opportunity to explore the complicity between the two creators, as well as Gertrude Stein's itinerary between Paris and the United States. This crossover of Stein's conceptual, performative and critical approaches in art, poetry, music and theater is revealed as characteristic of the later practices of American creators such as John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Nam June Paik, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Bruce Nauman, Lee James Byars, Marthe Wéry, Glenn Ligon, Ellen Gallagher, Gary Hill, Deborah Kass and Félix Gonzalez-Torres, among other prominent names.

The exhibition offers a view of Gertrude Stein's little-known poetic work and contrasts it with Picasso's paintings and sculptures. The exhibition contextualizes the moments the two shared in the rue de Fleurus and rue Christine, adjacent to the Musée Du Luxembourg.

France pays tribute to Picasso with twelve exhibitions, within this initiative Celebration Picasso 1973-2023: Fernande Olivier and Pablo Picasso, in the intimacy of the Bateau-Lavoir, which was on view between October and February at the Musée de Montmarte; Picasso/Poussin/Bacanales was on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon between November and March and between February and June the exhibition Picasso and prehistory was presented at the Musée de l'Homme-Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.

The Musée national Picasso-Paris, promoter of the project Celebration Picasso 1973-2023 together with the Spanish National Commission for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death, inaugurated in March Celebration Picasso, the collection takes color! In France, Picasso 1969-1972: The End of the Beginning, exhibited at the Musée Picasso in Antibes between April and June, and in May, Forms and Metamorphoses: Picasso's Ceramic Creation, which will remain open until October at the Musée Magnelli, Musée de la céramique- Vallauris.

From June to October, Goya in the eyes of Picasso will remain on display at the Musée Goya. Musée d'art hispanique, Castres; Gertrude Stein and Picasso. The Invention of Language at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris and Picasso and Antiquity at the Palais princier de Monaco will open in September.

In October the Musée national Picasso-Paris will present its second exhibition of the Celebration, Sophie Calle. It's up to you, beautiful, and October will also see Picasso. Drawing to infinity at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and The Paris of the Moderns 1905 - 1925 at the Petit Palais, Paris.

The exhibition is part of the Celebration Picasso 1973-2023 program, which commemorates, with more than fifty exhibitions and events, the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death in renowned cultural institutions in Europe and the United States.