Secret Images. Picasso and Japanese Erotic Prints

A selection of Japanese erotic prints that belonged to Picasso's private collection enters into dialogue with others of the same subject matter by the artist himself.

The show brings together for the first time a selection of Japanese erotic prints that had originally formed a part of Picasso's private art collection. Over the course of the history of art, Japanese erotic prints have received several different names:

shunga , makura-e, warai-e and higa , literally 'secret images'. These prints have a clear parallel in Picasso's compositional solutions and descriptions of the female nude, male desire and the act of love, and are complemented by his own erotic prints also on display. Picasso's entire oeuvre is imbued with eroticism and sensuality, yet at two specific moments in his career – the early years (1900 -1908) and the late years (1964 - 1972) – he explored erotic subject matter in greater depth. While his first drawings and sketches are irreverent and autobiographical accounts of his youth, his last etchings are characterised by different angles, perspectives and techniques that transform viewers into voyeurs.