Through the Eyes of Picasso ─ Face to Face With African and Oceanic Art

Through works of art, photographs, and writings, this volume explores Picasso’s fascination with tribal art and the influences he repeatedly drew upon for his own oeuvre.

“African art? I don’t know it.” With this provocative tone, Picasso tried to deny his relationship with art from outside of Europe. However, through hundreds of archival documents and photographs, this volume illustrates how tribal art from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia was a recurring source of inspiration for the artist.

Side-by-side comparisons illustrate the links between Picasso’s oeuvre and diverse tribal arts. In both, we find the same themes—nudity, sexuality, impulses, death, and more—along with parallel artistic expressions of those themes—such as disfiguration or destruction of the body. The volume is completed with a chronology of the relevant works and photographs of the artist in his studio.

Yves Le Fur is director of the Heritage and Collections Department at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and is a former curator at the National Museum of African and Oceanic Arts. He has organized a number of exhibitions on the art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas.