Meeting with Olivier Widmaier Picasso, author and producer for art and culture

Interview

Meeting with Olivier Widmaier Picasso, author and producer for art and culture - illustration 1

On the occasion of the reopening of the Picasso Museum this October 25th, Artsper invited Picasso's grandson, Olivier Widmaier-Picasso, to make a selection of contemporary works echoing the work of the painter.

OWP: At a moment when the Musée National Picasso in Paris reopens its doors after five years of renovation works, it is interesting to see how contemporary artists can be put in relation with my grand-father's work. This selection is not meant to create consensual or forced relations, but to show how artists share a common ground. Actually, Picasso's aura is rather a constraint from which contemporary artists try to distance themselves.

Meeting with Olivier Widmaier Picasso, author and producer for art and culture - illustration 1
Meeting with Olivier Widmaier Picasso, author and producer for art and culture - illustration 1

OWP: The 2008 show "Picasso et les maîtres" (Picasso and the Masters) at the Grand Palais has shown, for me, how Pablo Picasso is a classical painter through the references that are common to the great painters in the history of art. But, if we think of his explorations, Picasso is also a contemporary artist: constructions, installations, recovered materials, photography - these are areas that belong to contemporary art. Picasso has also made experiments in these fields. So we can speak of echoes if we examine the practice of artists who work today.

OWP: This is the context in which I wanted to place the selection that I made with the Artsper team. It was a dialog between us to determine the limits of this exercise: to recognize and discover what could echo Picasso's work in terms of theme, subject and treatment of the works. I also think that my great-grandfather was curious about new techniques and that the Internet would have certainly been an open field to him. No limits, free and universal: exactly like his work.

- Reminder: Olivier Widmaier-Picasso is the author of the biography “Picasso, portrait intime" (Picasso, an Intimate Portrait) published by Albin Michel/Arte Éditions.


Their favorite artworks

Photography, Christ retourné, Jean-Francois Lefranc

Christ retourné

Jean-Francois Lefranc

Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 inch

$1,073

Photography, Nu horizontal, Jean-Francois Lefranc

Nu horizontal

Jean-Francois Lefranc

Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 inch

$1,073

Photography, Sans titre, Jean-Francois Lefranc

Sans titre

Jean-Francois Lefranc

Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch

$1,073

Photography, Brothers II, Jacqueline  Roberts

Brothers II

Jacqueline Roberts

Photography - 31.5 x 39.4 inch

$5,082

Photography, Le bleu de la mer 2, Aurore de Sousa

Le bleu de la mer 2

Aurore de Sousa

Photography - 35.4 x 88.6 inch

$6,550