An extensive exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work will open next year at Hong Kong’s M+ Museum, and will feature his work alongside pieces by modern and contemporary Asian artists. All works in the exhibition, Picasso for Asia: An Interview (March 15 to July 13, 2025), on loan from the Musée National Picasso in Paris.
Picasso for Asia: An Interview It will feature over 60 works by Picasso (1881–1973) from the late 1890s to the early 1970s, alongside over 80 works by Asian and Asian-diasporic artists from the M+ collection. “The exhibition takes a new and unique approach to interpreting Picasso’s legacy, exploring the complex relationships between origin and reception, invention and adaptation, and [the] The West and the non-West,” says a project statement.
Including works by Picasso acrobats (acrobats1930) and Figures of the sea (Images of the sea1931) will be displayed alongside pieces from the M+ collection, such as the bronze sculpture Strange Bird 1980s watercolor by Isamu Noguchi (1945/1971) and Gu Dexin (Untitled).
by Pablo Picasso Figures of the sea (Images of the sea) 1931
© GrandPalaisRmn (Musée National Picasso-Paris) / Mathieu Rabeau © Succession Picasso 2024
At a press conference on March 27, Cécile Debray, president of the Musée National Picasso, said that her institution is trying to renew “the ways of looking at Picasso, who dominates art history and the art market.” Crucially, it discussed the artist’s troubling relationships with women (Picasso has been accused of abusing his muses and was 45 when he met Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was 17).
“There has been a lot of discussion about Picasso’s behavior towards women. When I was appointed president two years ago, I expected it [enter into] discuss and change the way Picasso is presented. We tried to present inventive exhibitions and a [new] the way he writes about his work [in the art historical canon]”, added Debray. “He was also a friend of communism. [The M+] show is the place to show the conversation with Asia.”
The new partnership was announced during Hong Kong Arts Week, which took place earlier this week on the back of the first Hong Kong International Cultural Summit, which saw a flurry of events and announcements. Ahead of the summit, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the organization behind Hong Kong’s eponymous art hub, signed a number of memorandums of understanding with more than 20 cultural institutions around the world.
Visitors to the Shanghai Museum admire Sassoferrato’s Virgin Mary in Prayer (1640-50) in the exhibition of records Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London
Sipa US/Alamy Live News
According to the memorandum, key joint exhibitions will be launched. Imperial Threads; Motifs and crafts from Turkey, Iran and IndiaHeld at the Doha Museum of Islamic Art in 2017, it will move to the Palace Museum in Hong Kong for an exhibition on the architecture of the late Chinese-American architect IM Pei (Life is Architecture) will open in June at M+ and later visit the Museum of Islamic Art.
Betty Fung, chief executive of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, says loan fees for the Picasso works will be paid, although the costs of the touring shows are offset by the various partner venues. For example, transport costs are being split between the National Gallery in London and the Hong Kong Palace Museum for an exhibition of 52 works currently on display at the Hong Kong institution (Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London, until April 11). The exhibition has also been in Shanghai and Seoul and will open in Taiwan this year.
