Picasso's Final Decade Explored at Fondation Beyeler

To mark the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death on April 8, 1973, the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, has opened a focused exhibition titled "Picasso. The Artist and the Model: Last Paintings." Running until May 1, 2023, the show presents ten late paintings from the museum's own collection, the Anthax Collection Marx, and private lenders. An additional fifteen masterpieces from both collections are displayed in adjacent galleries to provide a broader overview of Picasso's career. The core of the exhibition concentrates on the artist's final decade, when the octogenarian produced an astonishing volume of work—sometimes multiple paintings in a single day—as a defiant struggle against aging and creative decline. The selected works center on the theme of the artist and his model, a recurring subject in Picasso's oeuvre. Curator Raphaël Bouvier notes that these highly expressive pieces explore both the self-image of the artist and the creative act itself. Unlike Picasso's typical method of painting from memory, these works often depict him painting a nude model from life, highlighting or mocking his fixation on the female nude. The series raises contemporary questions about the display of women's bodies and their representation in art today.