Picasso: Challenging the Past
National Gallery, until 7 June
The ostensible subject of this show is Picasso’s relationship with past art, and accordingly the visitor might expect to see great works of the past hung next to Picassos for purposes of comparison. This does not occur. The exhibition contains only some 60 paintings by Picasso, some of which indeed evince references to particular Old Masters, though others don’t, apart from showing the kind of sound knowledge of art history which used to be expected of artists, before the foppish ignorance of today became fashionable.
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