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Health & Fitness

Picasso Exhibition at deYoung Worth the Ride to San Francisco

Some 100 Picasso masterpieces are on view at San Francisco's deYoung, the last stop on the exhibition's U.S. tour

Hot tickets right now are for Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musee National Paris, 100 wonderful paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints chosen from the French museum’s permanent collection and on loan to the deYoung Museum in San Francisco through Oct. 9.  The French museum closed in 2009 for major renovations (expected to take three years) and the deYoung exhibition is the last stop on its U.S. Tour.

Picasso was an artist of great breadth and it's all here: cubist, neoclassical, expressionist, surrealist. He had a Blue Period and a Rose Period. The exhibition demonstrates clearly that he was the most prolific artist of the 20th century.

Women have always been considered artists’ muses, but Picasso seemed to take love of women to new heights—and depths—once calling them “goddesses or door mats.” Either way, the women in his life served as catalysts for his work. Seven women are said to have played key roles in the development of his art. Dora Maar is the mistress famously depicted on the left in the triptych banner graphic accompanying this blog post.

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But even his classical paintings, such as Still Life with Pitcher and Apples, include elements that are often reminiscent of the female form.

The son of a painting teacher in Spain, Picasso painted his first picture when he was only seven years old: a bullfight. It may be just a myth, but it is commonly believed that his father gave up painting because his paled in comparison to his son’s.

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At age 19, Picasso came to Paris and a few years later settled into what was a mecca for artists: Montmartre. This Bohemian life didn’t last long: by 1909 his work was already in demand by significant collectors and there was no turning back.

He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Overheard in the gallery: “There’s one arm, where’s the other?” Regardless, there’s no question that Picasso was a major force in the art world and outside of Paris, there’s no better place to see just why than the deYoung.

The deYoung Museum in San Francisco is a treasure to visit. Not only is the new building beautiful and a work of art in its own right, but it attracts world-class exhibitions. One of the smartest things we did was become members of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, giving us member tickets to these great exhibitions at no additional cost

Tickets sell out quickly for nonmembers and are limited for members. For information on the Picasso exhibition and the deYoung’s collection, visit: http://deyoung.famsf.org/

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