Picasso and Abstraction: Encounters and Avoidance

Pablo Picasso did not speak often about abstraction, but when he did, it was either to dismiss it as complacent decoration or to declare its very notion an oxymoron. The root of this hostility is to be found in the impasse that the artist reached in the summer 1910, when abstraction suddenly appeared as the logical development of his previous work, a possibility at which he recoiled in horror. Although he swore to never go near abstraction again, he could not prevent himself from testing his resolve from time to time. Yve-Alain Bois will examine several encounters, or rather false encounters, of Picasso with abstraction. He will also discuss the way in which pioneers of abstract art (Mondrian in particular) thought of their own art as the continuation of Picasso’s.

NYU – Maison Française
16 Washington Mews
New York, NY 10003