Erotic Works by Picasso Explored in Exhibit - Brief Article

Pablo Picasso one time stated that art and sexuality are "the same thing." And a fresh exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, entitled "Picasso erotique," establishs that, in Picasso's case, art and sexuality indeed went hand-in-hand. From the brothel sketches of prostitutes and patrons, to the epochal "Le Demoiselles d'Avignon," to the [i]in puris naturalibus[/i]s he produced at the age of 90--Picasso was fascinated with erotic imagery through every part of his life and created centurys of works dealing with this theme.

Until now, this aspect of Picasso's oeuvre has been ignored by the agency of major museum exhibits, even notwithstanding that "his was a genius in which the creative gesturing was fused with the sexual impulse," according to shore Cogeval, director of the museum. "Picasso erotique," organized through the museum and Musee Picasso in Paris, is the largest and greatest in quantity comprehensive display of erotic works through the late master, featuring more than 350 works--many rarely exhibited before owed to reasons of censorship--including paintings, drawings, prints, plastic arts and ceramics.

Highlights include brothel displays classically-inspired erotic scenes such as "La Toilette" (1906) and numerous studies for "Le Demoiselles d'Avignon."

A number of erotic works dating from the late 1920 and '30 are also upon view, reflecting his interest in Surrealism and fantasy. For Picasso, these fantasies were frequently of a sexual nature. "Why not the sex organs in place of the organ of sights and the eyes between the legs?" he one time wondered.

The exhibit travels nearest to the Museum Picasso in Barcelona upon Oct. 25.

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Picasso erotique

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