TAB イベント - ピカソ　５つのテーマ

Coming to the Pola museum from central Tokyo is always quite a leap of faith: it takes a handful of means of transportation, ranging from charming to impractical... Upon arriving, the architectural space of the museum, and its lush surroundings, are an instant gratification that alone would make the trip worthy.

The exhibition, featuring not only many of Picasso's paintings, but also some photographs from the artist's early years, as well as many of Braque's works, extensively shown in parallel and perspective to Picasso's. The show does, at times, feel like a wannabe full retrospective that couldn't grow big enough, but given the extent of Picasso's career and the volume of works he produced, it also means that the show is enjoyable for families and art goers alike. The former will discover works beyond the cubist cliché, and the latter, too, are bound to discover new facets of a long career, in the photographs of Horta de Hebro, in the tenderness of the portrait of his son as Pierrot that closes the exhibition, or simply in the chance of seeing so many works up close.

As often, the show would benefit from translations of each theme's intruduction text, but at least quite a few of the permanent collection's pieces - themselves well worth extending your stay at the museum - are covered by the museum's English audioguide.

Being a European child in the 1980s, there would be frequent reports on TV, of yet another masterpiece of the European painting bought after an insane auction, by some outrageously rich Japanese buyer - and it was systematically lamented that these foreign buyers would lock away beauty forever, in a dark vault. It's good to see Shinobu Suzuki and the Pola Museum prove '80s television wrong.