EVENT DESCRIPTION
M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, proudly presents The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia—A Conversation. The Special Exhibition is a rich intercultural and intergenerational dialogue between more than sixty masterpieces by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) from the Musée national Picasso-Paris (MnPP), which holds the largest collection of works by Picasso in the world, and over eighty works by thirty Asian and Asian-diasporic artists from the M+ Collections and select loans from a museum, a foundation, and private collections. Co-organised by M+ and MnPP, this exhibition is a significant milestone in which masterpieces from MnPP are being shown alongside works from a museum collection in Asia for the first time. It is also the first major showcase of Picasso’s works in Hong Kong in over a decade, offering an unprecedented and unique perspective on the artist’s wide-reaching influence and what it means to be an artist in our time. The exhibition will be on view in the M+ West Gallery from 15 March to 13 July 2025.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia—A Conversation is co-presented by M+ and French May Arts Festival as the opening programme of the French May Arts Festival 2025. It is generously supported by the Title Sponsor, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust; the Major Sponsors, HSBC, Cathay, C C Land, and Chubb Life; and financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund under the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.
Co-curated by Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, and François Dareau, Research Fellow, MnPP, supported by Hester Chan, Curator, Collections, M+, the exhibition poses an interpretative framework for examining the works of the twentieth-century European master in relation to contemporary Asian and Asian-diasporic artists active today and in the recent past.
Major works by Picasso on view at the exhibition include some of the best-known icons in the MnPP collection such as Portrait of a Man (1902–1903), The Acrobat (1930), Figures by the Sea (1931), Large Still Life with Pedestal Table (1931), Portrait of Dora Maar (1937), Massacre in Korea (1951), and the sculptural series The Bathers (1956). Picasso’s art is presented alongside works by artists in the M+ Collections as a dialogue, such as Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904–1988), Luis Chan (Hong Kong, 1905–1995), Gu Dexin (Chinese, born 1962), Nalini Malani (Indian, born 1946), Tanaami Keiichi (Japanese, 1936–2024), and Haegue Yang (Korean, born 1971), as well as new artist commissions by Simon Fujiwara (British, born 1982) and Sin Wai Kin(Canadian, born 1991).
This Special Exhibition introduces four artist archetypes that encapsulate why Picasso is considered the quintessential twentieth-century artist and how the legacy of his art and life continues to influence contemporary artists as well as the public to this day. The four archetypes also serve as the sections of the exhibition and as powerful paradigms to which the contemporary Asian artists in the exhibition respond in their diverse, individualistic practices.
The Genius: From a young age, those around Picasso affirmed his reputation as a child prodigy. Picasso, aware of the power of genius, would often deliberately portray himself as a mythological figure with superhuman abilities in his works. Despite his success, Picasso continued to produce and experiment relentlessly until his final years, as if needing to prove his brilliance to the very end. While there is no simple answer as to why and how Picasso became the archetypal artist-genius, his self-mythologising invites further reflection on why we need our artists to be geniuses.
The Outsider: Artists sometimes take on the role of the outsider to challenge societal norms. For much of his career, Picasso rebelled against established artistic traditions and styles, and chose to depict people at the margins of society. He co-founded Cubism, an artistic movement that upended representational painting, and appropriated diverse cultures and artistic heritages, particularly African art. Picasso insisted on constantly changing his own style, even when it provoked rejection or outrage.
The Magician: Picasso’s favourite subjects were the people, objects, and interiors of his immediate surroundings. With a magical touch, he would transform ordinary objects into unforgettable works of art. In his later years, Picasso began to make ceramics, crafting whimsical plates, vases, and figurines. These pieces, placed alongside the works of contemporary artists from the M+ Collections, highlight Picasso’s magical touch that reveals the exceptional in everyday life.
The Apprentice: Picasso frequently learned and borrowed from the artists and makers who came before him. He found inspiration in their works and, in his own way, sought to compete with them. This section shows Picasso drawing upon a broad range of periods and styles from Western art history. His approach to history was always deliberate, whether referencing specific genres, reinterpreting masterpieces, or blending different styles into a single work. It is the apprentice within Picasso that made him the icon he is today—eager to learn, experiment, and, ultimately, surpass his predecessors.
