Picasso Et La Guerre

Exhibition at the Musée de l'Armée, Paris, 5 April - 28 July 2019

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a contemporary of major conflicts. Although he was released from mandatory military service and never enlisted as a soldier, the painter lived through the 20th century's battles from France - where he lived - as a civilian and Spanish citizen.

Considered at the Liberation as a Resistance and militant artist, after the Second World War he became a personality whose political commitments conferred on him a stature and a role unprecedented in the history of his time. However, Picasso's relationship to war is complex. Representations of battles are very rare in the artist's work, and his public stances are occasional, during a 20th century marked by two world conflicts, the Cold War and decolonisation.

Presenting 450 paintings, drawings and archival documents, this exhibition catalogue shows how Picasso was able to reach out to his contemporaries, beyond the circles of art, and to capture the great dramas of his time.