A man in no need of introduction. The Albertina dedicates an exhibition to Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of his death.
- Around 60 works to admire
- Paintings, drawings, linocuts & more
- Covers his key creative phases
- Runs March 17 – June 18, 2023
- See also:
- Albertina overview & info
- Art exhibitions in Vienna
50 years later
(Pablo Picasso, Mediterranean Landscape, 1952, oil on Isorel; press photo courtesy of ALBERTINA, Wien – Sammlung Batliner © Succession Picasso/ Bildrecht Wien, 2023)
On April 9th, 1973 (a day after Picasso died in France aged 91), an editorial in the Guardian newspaper described him as the last Renaissance man. The piece noted that…
…the world would look different had his cradle not rocked in Barcelona twenty years before the new century dawned
Fifty years on seems a poignant moment for the Albertina to pay commemorative tribute to this genius in the form of its Picasso exhibition.
This is the museum’s first significant Picasso-related event since 2010’s Peace and Freedom exhibition: a cooperation with Tate Liverpool that looked at how the artist dealt with the theme of conflict and peace across the years of the cold war.
(Pablo Picasso, Woman with Green Hat, 1947; oil on canvas; The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The Batliner Collection © Succession Picasso/ Bildrecht, Vienna 2023)
The Albertina collection covers over six decades of Picasso’s output and runs from the 1900 Au café drawing to 1967’s Naked Woman with Bird and Flute Player painting.
Around 60 of these works feature in the exhibition: paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics, etchings, and a whole room of linocuts.
The variety of media and wide timeline produce a few surprises for anyone just used to Picasso’s cubist output. An example is 1937’s The Dream and Lie of Franco, which bears close resemblance to a comic strip.
(Pablo Picasso, Dove in Flight, 1950, lithograph; Kreide und Tuschstift auf Zink auf Vélin-Papier d’Arches; press photo courtesy ALBERTINA, Wien © Succession Picasso/ Bildrecht Wien, 2023)
A trip around the exhibition initially takes you chronologically through Picasso’s various artistic phases, then moves to a more thematic approach.
Characteristic works illustrate each era, such as 1902’s The Sleepy Drinker from Picasso’s Blue Period. Or the 1911/1912 L’étagère painting for analytical cubism. Helpful display texts add biographical context and an explanation of techniques and motifs to many works.
Even for the uninitiated like me, the journey makes the artistic transition across Picasso’s active years clear and reveals the role his art played at various stages of his life: from self-healing to raging against the dying of the light.
Dates, tickets & tips
Take a tour through Picasso’s career from March 17th to June 18th, 2023. An entrance ticket for the Albertina from any valid source includes access to all the exhibitions within.
You’ll find some genuinely Renaissance artists in the Albertina’s concurrent Bruegel and his Time exhibition of drawings from 16th-century Netherlands (ends on May 24th).
For much of the same period, the museum also has, for example, a solo exhibition for Alex Katz. In a 2018 interview in the New Yorker magazine, Katz stated that when he began to paint his wife, Ada:
I was influenced by Picasso’s Dora Maar.
After the Albertina, consider a trip to the Leopold Museum for the Amazing exhibition, which features notable art from the prestigious Würth collection and includes a whole room of works by Picasso.
How to get to the Picassos
Just follow the tips at the bottom of the main Albertina page.
Address: Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna