Sabancı Museum presents digital Picasso 

ISTANBUL

Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM), which has been closed as part of measures taken against the COVID-19 outbreak, has started sharing its selections from past exhibitions on its digital channels. 

In this context, the online version of the exhibition “Picasso in Istanbul,” which was organized between Nov. 24, 2005 and March 26, 2006, is now on view on the museum’s social media accounts and YouTube channel. 

A breaking point for art exhibitions in Turkey, “Picasso in Istanbul” reached a record audience of all age groups. Curated by the artist’s grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Marta-Volga Guezala and Picasso expert Marilyn McCully, the online exhibition, now presented with an enriched content, has been prepared chronologically according to the period of the artworks. 

The exhibition includes 135 works spanning the artist’s entire career, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, textiles and photographs. 

The works have been loaned from private collections and major museums, including the Picasso museums in Barcelona and Paris. The exhibition also includes significant loans from the Fundacinn Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte.

 A number of rarely seen works from private collections are also a special highlight of the exhibition, including tapestries of “Les Demoiselles d‟Avignon” and “Les femmes à leur toilette” and the unique bronze cast, “Head of a Warrior, 1933.”

One of the highlights of the selection is a group of late paintings of musketeers, warriors, lovers and bullfighters, which were chosen by Picasso to be included in his last exhibition, held at the Palais des Papes in Avignon in 1973. 

The exhibition also features remarkable photographs of Picasso, his studios and members of his intimate circle.

Art lovers are able to listen to the works in the online exhibition through Ferit Edgü’s audio guide, which he wrote for “Picasso in Istanbul” and includes the stories and artistic historical analyzes behind the artist’s works, and the voice of theater actor Müşfik Kenter. 

The conference series, which was held during the exhibition and attended by the world’s leading experts as speakers, is also offered online. The speeches, which are rich sources about Picasso, shed light on the artist’s intense influence on contemporary art.