Picasso - Il linguaggio delle idee

Beyond the figure, beyond time, beyond conventions: from 4 October 2025 to 25 January 2026, the Museo Storico della Fanteria hosts a prestigious exhibition celebrating the brilliant Spanish artist and his multifaceted creative languages.

Curated by Joan Abellò with Marco Ancora and Carlota Muiños, the exhibition winds through six different sections: Picasso, gli amici e le donne; I linoleum, una nuova scoperta; Le Tricorne; Ultimo periodo: Côte d’Azur, foto e mostre; Carnet de A Coruña, 1894-1895; Arti minori e sperimentazioni — and gives a wide perspective on Picasso's creative universe.

On display are over 100 works from private collections, including graphic works, ceramics, and photographs, as well as some unique original works and reproductions, mainly realised after the works of Pablo Picasso and Edition Madoura ceramics. The works portray, in the name of constant experimentation and innovation, the artist's half-century, from stylistic evolution and cultural influences to collaborations, friendships, and recurring and emblematic themes.

Among the works displayed are a series of aquatints from the Sable mouvante series; a section dedicated to ceramics; several images of the artist taken by his photographer friends Edward Quinn and André Villers, including the famous photo of the Spanish master posing as Popeye (Villers, 1957); the drawings created for the Spanish ballet Le Tricorne; the two afterworks Les Saltimbanques (The Acrobats) au chien 1905 and the colour collotype Arlequin et sa compagne (Les Deux Saltimbanques) 1901. The exhibition also features Donna che fuma (1906-7), attributed to Picasso's first partner, Fernande Olivier, and Paesaggio lussureggiante (1930), an oil painting recently rediscovered and recognised as the work of Picasso's friend, Àngel Fernández de Soto.

Picasso. Il linguaggio delle idee is produced by Navigare srl, as part of a cultural initiative promoted by the Ministry of Defense and Difesa Servizi S.p.A., and organised under the patronage of the Lazio Region, the Municipality of Rome, the Instituto Cervantes, and Ciu Unionquadri.

Image: Proof of the initial state. Original lithograph printed in black ink, 65x50 cm, private collection.