When Georges Braque visited Pablo Picasso's studio in 1907, he likened viewing Picasso’s latest work to drinking kerosene. This incendiary approach was to set the contemporary art world alight.
In 1900, at around the time of his 19th birthday, Pablo Picasso went to Paris to visit the Universal Exhibition and to have his first experience of the art capital of the world. His training had been in provincial Spanish art schools, but the following year he was offered a large exhibition at the prestigious Vollard Gallery and he became familiar with the bohemian district of Montmartre and its gaudy pleasures. Yet only a few years later he was challenging Matisse for the position of leader of the French avant garde and was set on his revolutionary path as a universal artist.
Picasso in Paris, 1900-1907 follows Picasso’s discovery of art and life in the French capital and examines his response to specific artists, including Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Steinlen, Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin and Cézanne.
Marilyn McCully is an internationally recognized Picasso expert, based in London. She has organized numerous international exhibitions and written widely about Picasso and his work.