Theatre Picasso
Tate Modern, The George Economou Gallery, Level 4, Blavatnik Building, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
17 September 2025 – 12 April 2026
Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881 and died in Mugins, France in 1973. Over 45 works from the Tate’s collection, alongside European loans, are exhibited here. The exhibition is curated by contemporary artist Wu Tsang and writer and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca. It’s a hundred years since The Three Dancers, the central work in the exhibition, was unveiled in 1925. Picasso kept the painting until 1965 and then sold it to the Tate. You enter Theatre Picasso ‘backstage’ and progress through various spaces, through the wings, where many familiar images/portraits are waiting; and finally arrive ‘on stage’.
‘The Three Dancers’ are to one side of the stage looking out over the stalls.
Man Ray 1890-1976, Pablo Picasso performing as Carmen, Extract from ‘La Garoupe’, 1937. Man Ray drag movie clip, Picasso as Carmen.
A series of etchings, aquatints and a lithograph, framing ‘obscene’ imagery within staged confines.
The Painter and his Model, Oil on canvas, 1926.
Nude Woman with Necklace, Oil paint on canvas, 1968.
Henri-George Clouzot’s 1956 film ‘The Mystery of Picasso’, A real time movie showing Picasso in his studio, in real time, as he creates work.
This multiple image wall includes Seated Woman in a Chemise, 1923, Oil paint on canvas, and Girl in a Chemise, 1905, Oil paint on canvas.
The Three Dancers, Oil paint on canvas, 1925. Negotiating back through the wings to the stalls to view The Three Dancers on stage. And here you find, among others, the circus themed, The Acrobat, 1930, Oil paint on canvas.
