A new exhibition, titled Picasso, the Figure, opens at Louvre Abu Dhabi today, offering a focused yet wide-ranging examination of the artist who, more than any other, reshaped how the human body could be seen, imagined and fractured in modern art.
Drawing primarily from the collection of the Musee National Picasso–Paris, the exhibition traces Pablo Picasso’s lifelong engagement with the figure, following its transformation across seven decades marked by formal experimentation, political upheaval and personal urgency.
At the heart of the exhibition is a clear assertion: Picasso was fundamentally a painter of the human figure, even when his work appeared to dismantle representation altogether. Throughout the 20th century, his art maintained a connection to the real, however tenuous that connection sometimes became.
The exhibition frames his practice as a sustained deconstruction of academic illusionism, driven by a desire to question and reformulate how bodies could be represented and expressed.
Pablo Picasso's Woman in an Armchair, 1927, is on display at Picasso, The Figure at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Continue Reading on The National UAE
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.