Milano: “Picasso the Stranger”, from the Royal Palace to the Museo del Corso in Rome
exhibition of Picasso's works
Milano: “Picasso the Stranger”, from the Royal Palace to the Museo del Corso in Rome
Until February 2, 2025, Palazzo Reale presents Picasso the Stranger. Fifty years after his death, the work of Pablo Ruiz Picasso is investigated and narrated through the lens of his status as an immigrant, rejected, censored by the nation that saw him grow up and achieve success, France. Promoted by the Municipality of Milano - Culture, the exhibition was born from the original idea of Annie Cohen-Solal, author of “Picasso. A life as a foreigner” (already translated into 10 languages and published in Italy by Marsilio Editori) and scientific curator of the exhibition project, and is produced by Palazzo Reale with Marsilio Arte thanks to the collaboration of the Musée National Picasso-Paris (MNPP), main lender, the Palais de la Porte Dorée with the Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration and the Collection Musée Magnelli Musée of the ceramics of Vallauris.
Also, from February 27 to June 29, 2025, organized by Fondazione Roma with Marsilio Arte, “Picasso the Stranger” opens at the Museo del Corso – Museum Center in Rome thanks to the collaboration with the Musée national Picasso-Paris (MNPP), the main lender, the Palais de la Port Dorée in Paris, the Museu Picasso Barcelona, the Musée Picasso in Antibes, the Musée Magnelli – Musée de la céramique in Vallauris and important and historic European private collections. The exhibition presents in particular an important section dedicated to the Roman spring spent by Pablo Picasso with Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Serge de Diaghilev e Leonid massine.
"Picasso's Roman Spring in 1917 remains a historic moment of rebirth for the "foreign" artist, after the confiscation (December 1914) of his cubist works by the French government" comments Annie Cohen-Solal.
The itinerary of the exhibition, enriched by loans from important European museums and private collections, will be thus a way to further explore how the artist, master of twentieth-century art, established himself as a foreigner in France and imposed his aesthetic revolutions.
The exhibition also benefits from the special curatorship of Cécile Debray, president of the MNPP. Picasso the Stranger presents more than 90 works by the artist, as well as documents, photographs, letters and videos, coming mainly from the MNPP but also from the Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration in Paris and from the Collection Musée Magnelli Musée de la céramique in Vallauris: a project that opens up to more reflections on the themes of hospitality, immigration and relationships with others.
Tommaso Sacchi, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Milano: “The exhibition Picasso the stranger represents an extraordinary opportunity to reflect not only on the work of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, but also on the historical and social dynamics that influenced his life and his creative path. Milano, with its tradition of hospitality and cultural openness, confirms itself once again as an international center in which art becomes a tool for dialogue and inclusion. The innovative approach of this exhibition invites us to rediscover Picasso in a new light, that of the man, as well as the artist, marked by the experience of being a foreigner".
Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, settled in Paris in 1904. Although France becomes his home and his fame grows beyond national borders, the artist will never obtain French citizenship: the exhibition follows Picasso's aesthetic and political trajectory, to illustrate how he shaped his identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant. Everything has been written about Picasso, one might say. No other artist has aroused as many debates, controversies, passions. But how many know what obstacles the young genius had to face when he arrived in Paris for the first time at the age of eighteen, in 1900, without speaking a word of French? In 1901 he was mistakenly registered - with the number 74.664 - as an anarchist under special surveillance, before settled permanently in Paris in 1904, where he established himself as a leader of the Cubist avant-garde.
During the Spanish Civil War, the artist created Guernica (1937), the immense canvas destined to become the universal banner of the anti-fascist resistance. In 1940, fearing danger in France, where the Nazi invasion is imminent, Picasso decides to submit the application for naturalization which is rejected. The Louvre's great refusal of the donation of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1929 – 1906) dates back to 1907, even though it was now celebrated throughout the world. In 1955, when Picasso left Paris to settle in the south of France, he chooses to work with local artisans, deliberately turning his back on the tradition of bon goût: in short, he decides to immerse himself in the Mediterranean world, in the original syncretism of its multiple identities, handing over his own myth to the vast world.
How did he manage, in a century characterized by great political turbulence, in a world torn apart by nationalisms of every kind, to impose his aesthetic revolutions? The exhibition of Milano answers these questions, beyond the purely formalist aspect of the artist's work thanks to a multidisciplinary approach and research in the archives of the French police and the MNPP. The exhibition itinerary unfolds in chronological order, from 1900 to 1973., and the selected works are evidence of Picasso's troubled condition as an exile and foreigner in France, an experience that radically influenced his artistic practice. In the painting The Reading of the Letter (1921), for example, Picasso represents himself next to a friend, who could be the poet Guillaume Apollinaire or the poet Max Jacob, or Georges Braque: but what emerges is the importance that the artist – precisely because of the fragility of his condition as a foreigner – attributes to the bonds and friendships he has built over the years.
Among over forty works exhibited for the first time in Italy – including paintings, drawings, sculptures – there is a small gouache Group of Women from 1901: Picasso worked a lot in his first months in Paris, executing sixty-four works in record time that put us in front of disconcerting characters, portrayed with violent colors, with large touches of red that stand out like wounds. They are the common people of Paris observed in the slums of the city, in the cafes and streets of Montmartre, together with the welcoming group of Catalans of which Picasso was now also a part.
"Looked at with suspicion as a foreigner, a man of the left, an avant-garde artist, Picasso juggled with skill and political acumen in a country that rests on two great institutions: the police des étrangers and the Académie des beaux-arts, which obsessively protect the 'purity of the nation' and 'French good taste' – he says Annie Cohen Solal -. “In my research it constantly appears the image of a vulnerable and precarious Picassoor, because he knew he could be expelled at any time. However, he was a great strategist in navigating the widespread xenophobia”.The exhibition was also made possible thanks to the support of Unipol Gruppo, main sponsor: “The exhibition opens a new perspective in the understanding of Picasso's art, investigating how his condition as a "foreigner" in France influenced and shaped his artistic identity. Considered a “foreigner” also for having broken some typically bourgeois aesthetic judgment patterns. Despite the criticisms of traditionalists, and perhaps for this very reason, Picasso was free, indecipherable, uncontrollable, cosmopolitan, casual in managing his work relationships and casual in his private life, in his art he remodeled the aesthetic canons of reference, through the decomposition of volumes he traced new bold and unrepeatable paths" he claims Vittorio Verdone, Director of Communication and Media Relations Unipol Group.
And with the support of BPER Banca, sponsor. Serena Morgagni, Head of Communications comments: "By supporting what represents one of the most important artistic initiatives of the season, we confirm our commitment in the promotion and dissemination of art and culture. We want to offer the community experiences of the highest artistic value, considering them opportunities for inclusion and social growth."
“Marsilio Arte – states Luca De Michelis, CEO of Marsilio Editori and Marsilio Arte – is implementing its presence in the city of Milano with a shared programming built with the Municipality of Milano, of which he is a continuous partner: Picasso the Stranger is a complex and articulated integrated editorial project with an essay, a catalogue and the exhibition that fits into the exhibition panorama for its originality of approach and scientific investigation, as well as a visiting experience. An exhibition different, necessary for the topics covered, so timely, and for the debate that is already arising from it”.The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published precisely by Marsilio Arte, which opens with an introductory section, which collects institutional and curatorial interventions, as well as a text by the writer Niccolò Ammaniti. It follows a chronological path divided into four macro-sections, in which Picasso's artistic parable is presented, closely interconnected to the different periods of his life. The volume, completed by apparatuses dedicated to the works on display, to the documents and to the illustrations of the essays, reveals the situation of the “foreigner” Picasso in France and the reception of his work by French institutions, which seems to be woven with anomalies, discrepancies, sometimes even scandals. Without ever publicly exposing his problems with the French authorities, Picasso managed, depending on the circumstances, to navigate these troubled historical periods admirably, letting his work speak for itself.
Information for the public
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Museo del Corso, Rome (from 27th February to 29th June 2025)
Website
Phone: 06/22877077, call center from Monday to Sunday, from 9.30 to 18.00.
E-mail: info@museodelcorso.com
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Royal Palace, Milano (until February 2, 2025)
Opening exhibition
From Tuesday to Sunday 10am – 19pm
Thursday 10am – 22:30pm
Last admission one hour before closing
Monday closed
Tickets
Open € 17
one piece rubber € 15
Reduced € 13
Groups of at least 15 and maximum 25 people, visitors aged 6 to 26, visitors over 65, Touring Club members with card, FAI members with card, holders of tickets participating in the “Monday Museums” initiative (Poldi Pezzoli / Museo Teatrale alla Scala), military personnel, off-duty police forces, teachers, other participating categories (holders of tickets for the Mantua exhibition “Picasso a Palazzo Te. Poesia e salvare”, Feltrinelli with discount code), BPER employees and customers with badge or debit card (for two people).
Reduced Milano Card Museum € 12
Annual subscription worth 15,00 euros which offers free entry to the Civic Museums of the Municipality of Milano for one year and a 20% discount on tickets for exhibitions at Palazzo Reale, Pac Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea and Fabbrica del Vapore. The discount offered cannot be combined with other discounts and reductions on tickets.
Reduced € 10
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Special reduced € 8
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Special reduced € 6
School groups (up to secondary school level); groups organised directly by the Touring Club or the FAI (to which the fixed presale fee should not be applied); employees of the Municipality of Milano (upon presentation of the badge - only one accompanying guest is entitled to the reduced price of €13,00); Civil Service volunteers working for the Municipality of Milano (upon presentation of the identification badge); non-accredited journalists with OdG card equipped with the stamp from the current 39th year.
Family ticket, 1 or 2 adults + children (from 6 to 14 years)
Adult €12 Child €8
2×1 Unipol
2 tickets for the price of 1 ticket for Unipol Gruppo employees with badge
Free
Children under 6; disabled people (with 100% invalidity); 1 companion for each person with needs; 1 companion for each group; 2 companions for each school group; 1 companion and 1 guide for each FAI or Touring Club group; employees of the Superintendence of Architectural Heritage of Milano; ICOM members; tourist guides (upon presentation of a valid license)
Pre-sale cost € 2
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