Picasso summer begins in Switzerland

Museum goers are treated to a feast of Picasso's work this summer. Coll. Fondation Pierre Gianadda

The first of a series of Picasso exhibitions in Switzerland this summer highlights the artist's prolific output - and sense of humour - even in his late 80s.

Picasso was not only a painter and sculptor. He also created hundreds of wood engravings, and a series of them are now on show at the Jenisch museum in Vevey, next to Lake Geneva.

The etchings were all completed at his home at Mougins in the south of France during the summer of 1968. He was 87 and showing little sign of a slowdown in creative activity. Some depict scenes from a circus while others are erotic portrayals of women. “When he was in his 80’s Picasso still had the power to provoke,” says exhibition organiser, Nicole Minder.

“But at the same time there was this playful side to him, and he never lost the power to amuse.”

The Vevey museum is exhibiting nearly 350 Picasso etchings, all of them from a private Swiss collection begun by the late Jean Planque.

The collection also includes many paintings by Picasso and other major 20th century artists, and these are to be exhibited at the Hermitage Foundation in Lausanne throughout the summer. And at the end of June, “Picasso: under the sun of Mithra” at the Gianadda Foundation in Martigny will focus on his paintings of fighting bulls and mythical creatures.

But perhaps the biggest Picasso exhibition in Switzerland this year will be at the fine arts museum in Bern. This is to feature works by him which belong to the public and private Swiss collections, and cover every phase of his long artistic career.

swissinfo