Picasso and the war years, 1937-1945

Abstract

This volume draws upon new research and works that, in some cases, were held out of public view in Picasso's own collection to explore the period of his life from the Spanish Civil War through World War II and the Nazi occupation of France. Between these years Picasso produced some of the most intensely personal and expressive work of his career. With the outbreak of the Civil War in Spain, political crisis became personal crisis and the formerly autobiographical, even hermetic outlook in Picasso's art expanded to embrace a new political and social consciousness. He responded first to the horrors of war and then to the dangers and privations of life in occupied Paris, where he chose to remain until the liberation. The book traces the artist's responses to war as manifested in figure paintings, still lifes, portraits and cityscapes, amplified by photographs, letters, manuscripts and illustrated books by the artist, drawn from all around the world. At a time when many artists internationally are looking for languages to express social and political criticism, it is more relevant than ever to consider the interplay between art and history in Picasso's work. m