Picasso. Between Cubism and Classicism, 1915–1925

One hundred years on, this book portrays Picasso’s legendary 1917 journey to Rome and Naples with Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky and the company of Sergei Diagilhev’s Ballet Russes. lt was during this trip that he met and fell in love with the company’s leading dancer, Olga Khokhlova, who would become his first wife. In addition to the extraordinary weeks spent in ltaly, which were pivotal for the development of Picasso’s art during the postwar years, the monograph also examines his production immediately after, with particular reference to the ballets Parade and Pulcinella, as well as those paintings indebted to the iconographic and cultural worlds to which these ballets introduced him. The book focuses on Picasso’s ability to experiment in different genres, from still-life to portraiture, from the decorative collages executed during World War I, to the sophisticated realism of the years of his association with Diagilhev. It also documents the long-term impact of the ltalian journey on Picasso’s art.