Picasso-Giacometti expo opens; over 120 works on display

More than 120 works by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti-two of the most important artists of the 20th century-are on display at the Fire Station’s Garage Gallery in a first-of-its-kind exhibition in the Middle East which opened yesterday.
The ‘Picasso-Giacometti’ exhibition, which runs until May 21, is a collaboration between Qatar Museums (QM) and Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Fondation Giacometti. It covers paintings, sculptures, sketches, photographs and interviews with the artists drawn from the collections of Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Fondation Giacometti in Paris.
“We are hugely honoured to present a tribute to legacies of Picasso and Giacometti, a first for the Middle East, at Fire Station, which is home to our Artist in Residence Programme. The Fire Station is a place where our artists in residence encounter one another, just as Picasso and Giacometti encountered each other and shared a dialogue and many similarities, despite their age difference,” said Khalifa Al Obaidly, Director of Qatar Museums’Fire Station Artist in Residence Programme.
The exhibition tells captivating story of Picasso and Giacometti unknown relationship between the two artists, who, despite 20 years age gap, shared many key moments during their distinguished careers.
“The very close relationship between Picasso and Giacometti has never been shown before this exhibition, and we are particularly pleased to share this discovery with the Qatar audience. Thanks to an exceptional gathering of masterpieces, the audience will benefit from a large presentation of unique artworks from these two giants of Modern Art, and will be introduced to specific context of emulation and artistic exchanges which characterised this particularly fertile time for arts,” said Catherine Grenier, Director, Fondation Giacometti, and curator of the exhibition.
Divided into six sections, the exhibition evokes different aspects of each artist’s production, including development of their work as young artists through to their modernist creations, and shows correspondences between their works, the influence of the surrealist movement, and the return to realism during the post-war period.
Among key works on display are Self Portrait (1901), Woman Throwing a Stone (1931) and The She Goat (1950) by Picasso, and Flower in Danger (1932),Tall Woman (1960) and Walking Man (1960) by Giacometti, presented alongside some newly discovered drawings and photographic archives.
A public roundtable event will be held at 6pm tonight at the Fire Station auditorium during which Catherine Grenier and the Musée national Picasso-Paris director Laurent Le Bon will discuss the exhibition, its concept, development and curation.
The exhibition will be accompanied by interactive educational activities for school children, teachers and families as well as a self-guided handbook for visitors. Activities will include training for teachers to enable them to conduct self-guided tours of the exhibition for students, run workshops and equip them with materials to have post-visit discussions with students. All schools will be invited to the exhibition and workshops will take place at Fire Station Education Studio, where students can create their own art based on the artworks on show.