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Picasso. Window to the World

Welcome to Bucerius Kunst Forum’s New Exhibit, Running February 6, 2016 to May 16, 2016

The window motif can be found throughout Picasso’s entire body of work. Windows represented much more than simple everyday objects. A window addresses the issue of visualization, and for Picasso it symbolized painting itself. It invokes the studio as a place of creation where the painter can bring home the world. It opens up space and communicates with the interior and exterior. The window symbolizes human relationships as well as transcends the boundary between painting and sculpture. It represents the artist and acts as a substitute for the self-portrait.

Even in his early work, Picasso used the window motif to mark the interface between the artist and his world. By concealing a window with a curtain or blocking it with a canvas, he placed it on equal footing with painting. In his late work Picasso continued to explore the window motif, which always contained the artist’s reflection of himself.

During periods of artistic reorientation, he repeatedly returned to the subject of windows and used them to examine fundamental artistic questions. These occurred during transitions to a new phase in his work such as his fresh start following Cubism, and in the interaction with his sculptures, or in his ongoing dialog with Henri Matisse. He created series of window motifs that he presented in exhibitions immediately upon their completion. Picasso’s window paintings contain his painted theory of images.

Bucerius Kunst Forum

Located in the heart of Hamburg next to the Rathaus, the Bucerius Kunst Forum invites its visitors to take part in a stimulating encounter with artistic masterpieces. Interpreted from a contemporary perspective, international art from ancient to modern times is shown in four rotating exhibitions each year. Since its foundation in 2002, the Bucerius Kunst Forum has become one of the leading exhibition houses in northern Germany.

All exhibitions are supplemented with a versatile program of events: Concerts, lectures, readings and discussions illustrate the subject of each exhibition from the perspective of the various arts. You can visit the website here.