Picasso wasn’t always so well-received

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By Olivia B. Waxman

Staff Writer

There will be more than 50 exhibitions worldwide commemorating the cubist painter Pablo Picasso this year, as April 8, 2023, marks 50 years since his death. But he wasn’t always so well-received.

For the TIME Ideas section, Annie Cohen-Solal, who is curating the show called “A Foreigner Called Picasso” at Gagosian Gallery in New York later this year, details his rocky journey to fame and critical acclaim from the art establishment in France, where he spent most of his life living and working.

“In an age when xenophobia is on the rise, let’s remember that Picasso was himself a foreigner, subject to prejudices that might remind us of those endured by people crossing the Mediterranean, the English Channel, and the Rio Grande today,” Cohen-Solal writes. “He came to France for his own unique reasons, but the hostility he faced remains sadly familiar.”

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