Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced Picasso, the Determine, a landmark exhibition devoted to Pablo Picasso, broadly thought to be essentially the most influential artist of the twentieth century.
Developed in collaboration with the Musée nationwide Picasso-Paris and France Muséums, the exhibition runs from January 31 to Could 31, 2026.
The exhibition traces Picasso’s evolving therapy of figuration, from his early experiments with Cubism via classical portraiture and Surrealism, to the daring late works that outlined his remaining years.
It gives a chronological and thematic journey via the artist’s profession, analyzing how the human determine remained central to his radical reinvention of inventive kind.
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Curated by Cécile Debray, President of the Musée nationwide Picasso-Paris; Virginie Perdrisot-Cassan, Chief Curator and Head of Sculpture and Ceramics on the Musée nationwide Picasso-Paris; and Aisha AlAhmadi, Affiliate Curator at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the exhibition intertwines Picasso’s inventive transformations with Greek mythology.
The narrative spans portray, sculpture, drawing and ceramics, presenting a multifaceted view of his artistic output.
Picasso, the Determine brings collectively greater than 130 artworks, together with seven from Louvre Abu Dhabi’s personal assortment and 6 from the Division of Tradition and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.
Further loans come from France, Qatar, Lebanon, the UAE and West Asia, with contributions from eight lending establishments, non-public collections and one artwork gallery.
Taking part lenders embrace:
- Musée du Louvre
- Mobilier Nationwide (Paris)
- Mathaf: Arab Museum of Fashionable Artwork
- Dalloul Artwork Basis (Beirut)
- Meem Gallery (Dubai)
- Barjeel Artwork Basis (Sharjah)
Key works by six Arab artists are featured all through the exhibition, highlighting Picasso’s affect on fashionable artwork within the Arab world.
These embrace work by Iraqi artists Dia al-Azzawi, Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Stated, in addition to Egyptian artist Ramses Younan. A painted ceramic work by Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine can be offered, reflecting the reciprocal inventive exchanges between Picasso and artists from the area.
Picasso exhibition
Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, stated: “We’re delighted to unveil Picasso, the Determine, a first-of-its-kind exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi that explores the legacy of one of many main inventive figures of the twentieth century, inviting guests to expertise an distinctive number of artworks spanning instrumental intervals of his profession.
“We’re equally proud to current works by Arab artists whose practices spotlight the continuing dialogue with Picasso’s legacy, and extra broadly, between cultures that defines our museum’s mission.
“This exhibition displays our dedication to connecting international inventive narratives, and we’re deeply grateful to our companions and lenders, regionally and internationally, whose collaboration has made it doable.”
Cécile Debray and Virginie Perdrisot-Cassan added, “This primary monographic exhibition dedicated to Picasso at Louvre Abu Dhabi gives an unique journey centred on the query of the determine.
“Conceived from the world’s richest assortment of the artist’s works and developed in a spirit of change with the groups and collections of Louvre Abu Dhabi, an establishment that stands as a cultural crossroads between East and West, archaeology and fashionable artwork, the exhibition explores how Picasso regularly reinvented illustration and expression, from the hieratic indicators of Cubism to the classical our bodies of the Twenties and the hybrid beings of his Surrealist interval.”
