»Pablo Picasso & Jean Cocteau – An Artist Friendship«

The prince of poets and the artistic genius: after their first meeting in Paris in the summer of 1915, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) formed a lifelong friendship. Their shared interests lay in the »myth of woman and the myth of man«, in eroticism, portraiture, the circus and bullfighting. Cocteau, who worked as a poet, playwright, painter and ceramist, among other things, found orientation and structure in Picasso, and Picasso was constantly tempted by Cocteau's new charms and penchant for scandal. Through Cocteau, Picasso found access to theater and dance, and in the following years the painter produced several stage designs. With around 80 prints and drawings, the exhibition sheds light on a special kind of artistic friendship and the mutual influence of the two artists. Pablo Picasso & Jean Cocteau – An Artist Friendship can be seen at the Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde from May 25 to August 24.

During the years of the Second World War, the two artists became estranged, partly because of their differing views on the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. However, they never lost contact and met regularly in the post-war period. In 1960, when Jean Cocteau was officially elected France's Prince of Poets, Picasso made a guest appearance in Cocteau's film Testament of Orpheus. At the end of their life together, Picasso »ciphered« his 48-year friendship with Cocteau in a lithograph dated November 6, 1962: Picasso's profile and Cocteau's enface view appear superimposed on each other.

The illustrations were added on May 27, 2025.