Art Gallery: Picasso Special - The Mediterranean Years

The war was over, Picasso was finally free to leave the privations of Paris behind him and to spend more time in the South of France, marking a return to his Mediterranean heritage.

The Gagosian Gallery’s exhibition, curated by Picasso’s distinguished biographer John Richardson and the artist’s grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, focuses on those Mediterranean years, between 1945 to 1962, when the artist was moving easily between styles. Organised around the works from the private collection of the Picasso family, it features paintings, sculptures, linocuts and ceramics that have come to be known as Picasso’s Picassos. This selection in theartsdesk's gallery offers a rare view of the artist’s most intimate works.

The exhibition follows last year’s Picasso Mosquetero, curated by Richardson and Ruiz-Picasso at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Concentrating on the artist’s late works, it was heralded by the New York Times as one of the city’s best shows in the last decade. Click on the images below to enter a slideshow.

Unless stated all images © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York