Musée Picasso in Paris….

My plan for posting this weekend was to share more details beyond my social media posts on the amazing MFA-Houston current exhibit Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography that opened last Sunday. However, due to a conflict on media preview day, I had to rush through and really decided I must go back to be able to write it completely and that will follow very shortly……….however, staying in a “museum state of mind” and just returning from my month in Europe I decided to share with you my visit to the Picasso Museum in Paris.

I know so many of you have travelled to Paris or are traveling to Paris this summer and have plans to visit many of its iconic museums. I thought I might add one to your list that might not have been on your radar. So please join me, an avid Picasso fan, as I take you through my visit there and to the charming district of Marais in the 3rd arondisement…..two add-ons for this quick Parisian outing that added so much to my visit…….

The Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris, France, dedicated to the work of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The museum collection includes more than 5,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints, engravings and notebooks) and tens of thousands of archived pieces from Picasso the man. It includes the artist’s photographic archive, personal papers, correspondence, and author manuscripts. A large portion of items were donated by Picasso’s family after his death, in accord with the wishes of the artist, who lived in France from 1905 to 1973.

Here’s how it all happened. In 1968, France created a law that permitted heirs to pay inheritance taxes with works of art instead of money, as long as the art is considered an important contribution to the French cultural heritage. This is known as a dation, and it is allowable only in exceptional circumstances. The Picasso heirs proposed that route as a way to pay the artist’s inheritance tax at the time of his death. This selection was approved by all and ratified in 1979. It contains work by Picasso in all techniques and from all periods, and is especially rare in terms of its excellent collection of sculptures.

Some highlights of our walk-through…….both of the hotel/gallery architecture and also some of the many Picassos including features of the man himself.

Research through wickipedia.org and http://www.museepicassoparis.fr/