Halcyon celebrates Pablo Picasso’s enduring genius with over 130 works spanning the final four decades of his life, tracing themes of creativity, love, mythology and mortality.
Bringing together more than 130 artworks from the last four decades of Picasso’s life, the exhibition features a compelling selection of works on paper and ceramics that illuminate the artist’s relentless drive for reinvention.
Organised around six central themes — Artist and Model; Artist’s Muses; Alter Egos; Finding Peace; Still Lifes and Ceramics; and Creativity, Legacy and Death — the exhibition offers a lens into the final, fertile phase of Picasso’s career. Visitors will encounter the artist’s lovers and muses, his mythological alter egos, his whimsical ceramic experiments, and his astonishingly prolific output in the final decade of his life.
Courtesy of Halcyon
Among the ceramics on display are Chouette (1968) and Vase deux anses hautes (1953). These playful, zoomorphic works, produced in the south of France between 1948 and 1968, highlight Picasso’s spirited exploration of form in three dimensions.
The exhibition also includes an extensive collection of works on paper — lithographs, etchings, and linocuts — underscoring Picasso’s deep engagement with the printed image. Highlights include complete portfolios and rare editions such as La Tauromaquia (1957–59) and La Guerre et la paix (1954). Multi-state prints and unique proofs reveal the intensity and experimentation that defined Picasso’s printmaking practice.
Women, Muses and Mirrors
Picasso’s approach to portraiture — and the women who shaped it — lies at the heart of Picasso: A Legacy. The exhibition traces how each new muse inspired fresh creative directions. Portraits such as Femme au fauteuil no. 4 (1949) and Jacqueline de profil à droite (1958) portray Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque, whose presence catalysed some of the artist’s most daring stylistic evolutions. Their likenesses are interwoven with Picasso’s own shifting self-image — each work a reflection of love, transformation, and artistic renewal.
Alter Egos and Mythic Figures
Throughout his life, Picasso repeatedly returned to a pantheon of mythic characters — minotaurs, fauns, bulls, matadors, and owls — as vehicles for exploring the forces that defined him: desire, vitality, and mortality. The exhibition examines these motifs as symbolic alter egos. In Faune musicien no. 3 (1948), for instance, a faun is depicted in dramatic chiaroscuro, playing the aulos, a double-pipe instrument long associated with revelry. Such figures allowed Picasso to probe the tensions between instinct and intellect, pleasure and restraint.
Courtesy of Halcyon
A Final Defiance
The artist’s later years are often seen as a confrontation with time itself — a battle against mortality fought through sheer creative will. The works from this period brim with humour, parody, and self-reflection, revealing an artist who measured himself constantly against the masters of the past while seeking to secure his own place among them. The result is a body of work both playful and profound, where creativity, legacy, and death are inseparably bound.
“Halcyon is delighted to present Picasso: A Legacy, a landmark exhibition that brings together an exceptional selection of works from one of the most pioneering artists of all time,” said Paul Green, Founder & President of Halcyon. “Featuring over 130 original artworks, Picasso: A Legacy demonstrates Halcyon’s commitment to delivering exhibitions of international significance for its collectors and the wider public.”
Courtesy of Halcyon
“With fury and unabashed imagination, Picasso changed the course of art history, placing him in the annals of history’s greatest artists,” added Kate Brown, Vice President & Creative Director at Halcyon. “This exhibition offers a unique glimpse into Picasso’s astonishing and restless creativity during the final four decades of his career. Through works on paper and ceramics, we see how he continually reinvented himself, pushing mediums into bold new expressions that capture both the vitality of his later years and the timeless spirit of his art.”
Picasso: A Legacy will open at Halcyon, 148 New Bond Street, on 16 October 2025. The exhibition is free to enter and open daily.
©2025 Halcyon
Contributing writer chronicling contemporary art’s beautiful mess — when he can get there. Survives on openings, opinions, one gallery, one artwork at a time. Considers espresso a meal.
