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Pablo Picasso had one of many best and most prolific inventive careers. Piles of books have been written about almost each side of the Spanish artist’s life and work. We have now beforehand tackled Picasso’s Blue Interval in our “must-read” sequence; now we flip to the second half of his profession, to coincide with the exhibition Late Picasso, which opened at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet final month. The present was instigated by the curators Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, who’ve chosen 5 key books to assist us higher perceive Picasso’s later years.
Picasso: Portray In opposition to Time (2006), edited by Werner Spies
“This catalogue is dedicated to the late section of Pablo Picasso’s oeuvre, particularly the years 1961 to 1973. Throughout this era, which Picasso spent with Jacqueline Roque in Mougins, a physique of labor emerged marked by outstanding depth, formal freedom and thematic radicalism. Opposite to the widespread notion that these late works have been characterised by hasty execution and stylistic arbitrariness, the quantity reveals how Picasso, pushed by a way of inventive urgency, painted in defiance of his personal mortality.”
A Lifetime of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 (2008) by John Richardson
“Drawing on intensive analysis, together with first-hand interviews and beforehand unpublished supplies, this authoritative biography presents a wealth of authentic insights. This quantity combines a rigorous evaluation of Picasso’s inventive manufacturing with a richly textured and nuanced account of his advanced private life. An vital quantity with the intention to study extra about Picasso’s private life.”
Picasso: Endlessly Drawing (2024), edited by Anne Lemonnier and Johan Popelard
“Drawing constituted for the artist an everlasting and dynamic inquiry into the expressive capacities of line, from his formative research to his late-period works. This quantity, comprising over 300 reproductions, encompasses each canonical and lesser-known items, in addition to picks from his distinctive notebooks. ”
Picasso’s Animals (2014) by Boris Friedewald
“An enthralling and insightful exploration of a lesser-studied aspect of Picasso’s life and work: his deep and lifelong connection to animals. Drawing on anecdotes, images and a wide array of works, Boris Friedewald organises the ebook thematically round particular animals that performed a job in Picasso’s private and inventive universe. A lovely kids’s ebook, not just for kids!”
Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective (1980), edited by William Rubin
“Revealed to accompany the landmark 1980 exhibition on the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in New York, this stands as one of the crucial complete and visually compelling volumes devoted to Picasso’s oeuvre. Encompassing almost a century of inventive manufacturing, {the catalogue} presents over 900 works—together with work, sculptures, drawings, prints and ceramics—providing an unparalleled overview of his prolific and multifaceted profession.”
• Late Picasso, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, till 5 April 2026
