“Picasso & the Camera,” the fifth major Picasso survey at Gagosian Gallery, is an intimate look into the life of the artist, and “the most biographical” of all the Picasso shows that have been staged at the gallery, as per the show’s curator, art historian and Picasso biographer John Richardson, a friend of Picasso’s during the 1950s. For this show, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, the artist’s grandson and the founder of the Museo Picasso Malaga, has contributed works from his personal collection, which have never before been exhibited including photographs, drawings, and a selection of intimate home videos.
The show, which runs through January 3 at Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street, is something of a spectacle. With the help of set designer David Korins, photographs and works have been presented in a dramatic display throughout the space on the gallery’s walls as well as on enormous slanted columns, a small stage at one end of the gallery, and a viewing room at the center for the artist’s home movies. As unlikely as it sounds, the curators, with the assistance of Gagosian directors Valentina Castellani and Michael Cary, have made the white cube space look sort of homey.
We caught up with Richardson and Ruiz-Picasso on the day of the opening to hear a little about this personal presentation.