Olivier widmaier picasso biography paris
French artists...
French painters
The moment Picasso ‘had to face up to himself in the mirror’
How did Picasso arrive at his creative tipping point in Paris in the early years of the 20th century? As a new film explores the period leading up to this pivotal moment, Christie’s meets the artist’s grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso
Pablo Picasso was 19 when he held his first solo exhibition in Paris, in 1901.
It wasn’t a runaway success, but the paintings — a mix of street scenes, pictures of women and landscapes — met with enough favourable reviews that he felt ready to make his way in the city, then the capital of the art world.
He rented a studio on the Boulevard de Clichy the following year, where he began the process of moving his art in new and startling directions.
The story of what happened next — his great dismantling of the traditions of Western painting — has made Picasso one of the most famous artists of all time.
How he reached that tipping point,
