Musée Picasso Paris launches online archive and research centre

The Musée National Picasso in Paris has launched a new online portal making its collection and archives freely accessible to the public, with a focus on researchers and artists. The digital archive includes paintings, sculptures, 19,000 photographs (some previously unseen), drawings, prints, documents, videos, interviews, and essays. The museum plans to add 200,000 more references from the artist's archives in the future. The portal allows keyword searches and thematic exploration of Picasso's connections to theatre, poetry, and gender perspectives. Concurrently, the museum is preparing to open the Centre d'Études Picasso by the end of 2024 in the Hôtel de Rohan, a research centre reserved for scholars and artists-in-residence, which will offer research grants from the 2024/25 academic year. The centre will feature a consultation room with computers and a conference space. The museum's mission to become an international and multidisciplinary study centre was first envisioned by its inaugural director Dominique Bozo in 1976, and was reinforced after France acquired Picasso's archives in 1992. The digitalisation project began in 2023 ahead of the centre's opening. The museum also recently inaugurated the exhibition "Picasso Iconophage" (until 15 September 2024), juxtaposing Picasso's works with those of artists who inspired him, including Rembrandt, Delacroix, Goya, and Matisse, as well as objects reflecting extra-artistic influences.