Picasso's Largest Chinese Exhibition Opens at UCCA Beijing

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing has inaugurated 'Picasso – Birth of a Genius', the largest exhibition of Pablo Picasso ever staged in China, running until September 1, 2019. The show features 106 works from the Musée national Picasso-Paris, covering the artist's first three decades (1893–1921), including preparatory materials for 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' and 'Man with a Mandolin'. The collection, insured for €800 million, was transported on seven separate aircraft. Nine additional works from Picasso's private collection by Matisse, Cézanne, Rousseau, Braque, Miró, and Vuillard are also displayed. The exhibition was made possible by unprecedented Sino-French diplomatic cooperation, following meetings between Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in 2018, and President Xi Jinping and President Emmanuel Macron on March 25, 2019. Curated by Emilia Philippot, the show broke UCCA's first-day visitor records. It marks a milestone in cultural relations between France and China, with 2021 designated as the Sino-French tourism year.