A Foreigner Called Picasso

This two-volume exhibition catalogue—with 250 limited-edition box sets—was published on the occasion of A Foreigner Called Picasso at Gagosian, West 21st Street, New York. Curated by Annie Cohen-Solal and Vérane Tasseau, the exhibition was organized in association with the Musée national Picasso–Paris and the Palais de la Porte Dorée–Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris. Spanning the entirety of Pablo Picasso’s career in France from 1900 through 1973, A Foreigner Called Picasso reframes our perception of the artist with a focus on his status as a permanent foreigner in France.

The first volume illustrates the more than eighty-five artworks in the exhibition with plates and installation photographs, organized chronologically into seven sections: “Prelude,” “1900–1906: ‘Anarchist under Surveillance’ in the Labyrinth of Paris,” “1906–1919: Leader of the Avant-Garde,” “1919–1939: Mercurial Artist under Siege,” “1940–1944: ‘France for the French!,’” “1944–1955: The Communist Party as a ‘Homeland,’” and “1955–1973: Head of a Mediterranean Tribe in His Kingdom.” In addition to an an introduction by Larry Gagosian and a text by Paloma Picasso, it includes a conversation between Cohen-Solal; Cécile Debray, director of Musée national Picasso–Paris; and Constance Rivière, director of the Palais de la Porte Dorée. An homage to Claude Picasso (1947–2023), with a remembrance by Gagosian, concludes the book.

The second volume, edited by Cohen-Solal, reproduces historical material and ephemera that contextualize the exhibited works, including sketches, printed matter, letters, and installation, studio, and personal photography. Divided into four sections—“The Picasso Paradox,” “The Triple Stigma,” “A Multi-Resource Strategist,” and “Picasso Our Contemporary”—it also contains thirteen illustrated essays and conversations that explore the important new perspectives prompted by the exhibition; several essays are published in English for the first time, following a French catalogue on the subject (Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2021). Among the featured texts by the curators, Picasso experts, social scientists, and intellectuals at large are “A Group of Saltimbanques and the Ordeals of the Wars” by Cohen-Solal; “When Chicago Met Picasso” by Silvia Beltrametti; “Smuggling Identities: Picasso at the Borders of Catalonia” by Peter Sahlins; and “Guernica: An Odyssey in Time and Space” by Jeremy Adelman.

The volumes are available for purchase individually, or as a pair with a $15 discount that will be applied at checkout. Special limited-edition box sets are also available.