Picasso Exhibition Opens in Rio de Janeiro at CCBB Today

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Following the recent record-breaking sale of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s “Les femmes d’Alger (version O)” for over US$179 million, Rio de Janeiro’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) will host the exhibition “Picasso e a Modernidade Espanhola” (Picasso and Spanish Modernity).

Opening today (Wednesday, June 24th) and running through September 7th, the free, public exhibition highlights the career and impact of the modern-era master with the display of approximately ninety works.

Curated by Eugenio Carmona, the exhibition delves into Picasso’s career and cultural influence as well as his relationships with his contemporaries, artists including the Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Juan Gris, and Antoni Tàpies, among others. Their works and those of others are also on display in the CCBB as part of the exhibition.

Featured Picasso works include the paintings, “Seated Woman Resting on Elbows,” (1939), “The Painter and the Model” (1963), “Portrait of Dora Maar” (1939) and the sculpture, “Head of a Woman (Fernande)” (1910).

“He worshiped the female figure and desire. This was one of his obsessions and is present in many of the produced works,” curator of the exhibition and Professor of Art History at Universidad de Málaga, Spain, Eugenio Carmona told Guia UOL, adding, “Picasso painted female figures as organic forms with geometric character. The eyes, noses and forms have psychological and communicative values. And behind them, there is also the melancholy of classic beauty.”

The works featured in “Picasso e a Modernidade Espanhola” are from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía collection and before the exhibition arrived in Rio, it ran at São Paulo’s CCBB March 25th through June 8th.

What: “Picasso e a Modernidade Espanhola” (Picasso and Spanish Modernity)
When: June 24th through September 7th. Wednesdays through Mondays 9AM to 9PM. CCBB is closed on Tuesdays.
Where: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), Rua Primeiro de Março, 66, Centro
Entrance: FREE