27 February – 29 June 2025

Exhibition “ Picasso lo straniero”, curated by Annie Cohen-Solal with the contribution of Johan Popelard , organized by Fondazione Roma with Marsilio Arte, 27 February – 29 June 2025

Organized by Fondazione Roma with Marsilio Arte, the exhibition Picasso lo straniero will open its second Italian stage at Palazzo Cipolla starting from 27 February 2025. Created with the support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, the main lender, along with the Palais de la Porte Dorée, the Museu Picasso Barcelona, the Musée Picasso in Antibes, the Musée Magnelli – Musée de la Céramique in Vallauris, and significant historic private European collections, the exhibition will feature over 100 works by the artist, as well as documents, photographs, letters, and videos. This project is further enriched—marking its second Italian stage after Palazzo Reale in Milan and Palazzo Te in Mantua—by a nucleus of previously unseen works, selected by the curator exclusively for the Palazzo Cipolla exhibition. The original concept for the project was developed by Annie Cohen-Solal, who curated the exhibition with a contribution from Johan Popelard of the Musée national Picasso-Paris. The exhibition will also highlight an important section dedicated to the Roman spring of 1917, spent by Pablo Picasso in the company of Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Sergei Diaghilev, and Leonid Massine.

Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Málaga, Spain, settled permanently in Paris in 1904. Although France hosted him until his death and his fame grew beyond national borders, the artist never obtained French citizenship: the exhibition will follow Picasso’s aesthetic and political trajectory, to illustrate how he shaped his own identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant.

« Picasso’s Roman Spring in 1917 remains a historic moment of rebirth for the “foreign” artist, after the confiscation (December 1914) of his cubist works by the French government » comments Annie Cohen-Solal, curator and author of the book Picasso. A Life as a Foreigner (Prix Femina Essai, 2021) already translated into 10 languages and published in Italy by Marsilio Editori.

The exhibition will therefore be a way to further explore how the artist, a master of twentieth-century art, established himself as a foreigner in France and imposed his aesthetic revolutions.