Picasso in the 1960s

After Pablo Picasso's death in 1973, his late work was rarely or never represented in major retrospectives. Many considered it insignificant or even a betrayal of his own avant-garde oeuvre. It was only in the last 20 years that Picasso's work from the 1960s onwards, which is also considered pioneering, was reevaluated: Picasso, the eternal innovator, explored unknown territory until the end and was forward-looking. His work appears more playful, vital, and free, but is also characterized by life experience and a certain efficiency. With around 70 paintings from the years 1963 to 1972, the Moderna Museet offers a rare insight into Picasso's late work: Late Picasso runs from November 22, 2025, to April 5, 2026, in Stockholm.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Picasso used broad, seemingly casual brushstrokes. The mixture of motifs, ranging from self-portraits to depictions of models to purely fantastical scenes, demonstrates Picasso's process-oriented approach to his work and his desire to constantly create new forms of expression. The stylistic diversity of his late work complements Picasso's reputation as an innovator of 20th-century art, setting new standards in painting, sculpture, graphic art, and ceramics. In his final creative years, he also explored new art movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.