April in Paris

A spring trip to Paris
I recently returned from a few days in Paris, one of my favorite cities. There was a great deal of walking, a lot of delicious things to eat, and delightful companionship. I got drenched in a sudden cloudburst the day I arrived, but otherwise the weather was nicely cooperative. All around, a dandy trip.

One of the things I wanted to do was to see the new exhibit at the Musée Picasso. He’s not my favorite artist, but the man certainly had a large impact on 20th-century art, and this year marks the 50th anniversary since his death. Exhibits abound, but this one promised to be unique for two reasons. One, this museum holds a huge collection of Picasso works, covering the full range of his life, as well as the remarkably broad range of art forms he worked in. Two, this exhibit is the work of British designer Paul Smith, and I thought it would be interesting to see how he chose to display the art.

The exhibit opens in a room whose walls are fully papered with reproductions of older covers of Vogue magazine. Picasso liked to, um, enhance Vogue covers, and many of his designs were displayed in this room.

From here, each room represented either a different period of Picasso’s life, or a unique art form that he explored. Each of the rooms had its own full wall treatment, which created a more immersive experience than I usually have in museums. I felt as if I were part of the art being shown, maybe even one of Picasso’s subjects. Rather than just looking at the art, I was somehow part of the art itself. The following photographs give an idea of what we saw.

The room for Picasso’s Blue Period was completely painted in a deep midnight blue.

Two different spaces, two different treatments. On the left, a room striped in old-fashioned wallpaper to reflect the textures and colors of the paintings shown there. On the right, an iconic harlequin (Pierrot) figure lends his diamond pattern to the walls. The model is Picasso’s son Paulo.

Picasso was fascinated by bullfighting, and depicted many aspects of the blood sport throughout his life. This room was entirely deep red, and the art included bronze sculptures of bulls, as well as black and white illustrations of the bullfights.

Picasso was always interested in ceramics, and when he moved to Vallauris, near Nice, he began a lifelong exploration of various techniques in the art of pottery. The walls of this room were covered by plain, mass-produced white dinner plates, providing a nice foil for showing off Picasso’s creativity and artistry.

One room, lots of stripes, each wall a different color. It was fantastic!

One of Picasso’s last works, “The Young Painter,” 1972.

The exhibit is “Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light,” until 27 August 2023, at the Musée Picasso in Paris. The opening photograph is by Robert Doisneau, made in 1952 in Picasso’s Vallauris pottery studio.