About

By the time of his death on 8th April 1973, Picasso had become a legendary, almost mythical figure. For eighty years he had been an unstoppable juggernaut, continually reinventing the scope of his work and almost single-handedly altering the course of 20th century art. He achieved an unprecedented degree of success and celebrity, reinventing the public idea of what art and an artist could be. It’s no exaggeration to say that without him, our world would look very different.

During the final years of his life Picasso had largely retreated from public view, forsaking the bustle of Cannes for …