A remarkable free exhibition at the Institut Gallery in Paris is presenting nearly 70 years of Pablo Picasso's drawings, revealing the tentacular nature of his work from academic virtuosity to absolute freedom of line. The exhibition "Picasso. Drawing 1903-1972" traces the extraordinary trajectory of the Spanish genius through approximately 100 drawings, 70 of which have never been shown to the public for more than half a century.
Located at two spaces on 3 bis rue des Beaux-Arts and 16 rue de Seine in Paris's 6th arrondissement, the exhibition illustrates an artist who never stopped unlearning in order to better reinvent himself. As Picasso famously said, "It took me my whole life to learn to draw like a child." At age 12, he drew like Raphael; at 85, he drew like no one else.
For Picasso, drawing was not an end goal but a permanent process of liberation. This non-linear journey begins in Barcelona during his Blue Period, when young Pablo had already mastered all the conventional codes. His father, a professor obsessed with his own career, had intended for Pablo to become an official artist, a respected academician. However, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907) would horrify his father, who never understood that his son was accomplishing precisely what he had stated: unlearning perfection to rediscover the essential.
Picasso excelled with all mediums – charcoal, chalk, ink, colored pencils – and on every surface: paper, canvas, restaurant napkins, and envelopes. His colossal graphic work broke down stylistic barriers with the freedom and imaginative thirst of a child discovering the world. The Institut Gallery exhibition chronologically unfolds these moments of rupture, including 1917's "Parade," a scandalous ballet with a classical curtain but absolutely cubist costumes where order and chaos coexisted.
The exhibition covers the 1920-1930 period when surrealist influence emerged with highly erotic charges. Visitors move from drawings of strange and mysterious figures to portraits of Olga Khokhlova, then to those of Marie-Thérèse Walter, whose stylized profile is reduced to a pure line. Each woman represented a new world for Picasso to explore artistically.
Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's final muse, occupies the place of honor in this exhibition. At 16 rue de Seine, 50% of the works are dedicated to her. Met in summer 1952 and married in 1961, Jacqueline was Picasso's companion for his last 20 years. In "Jacqueline with Folded Legs" (1954), charcoal captures overwhelming intimacy. The work, dedicated "for my dear Jacqueline," shows a Picasso in love who offers his art as one offers their heart.
Even more extraordinary is the series of seven "Sleeping Women" from 1957 in colored pencils, where the body abandoned to sleep becomes a landscape of tenderness. There's also Jacqueline's gaze, whose resemblance to Eugène Delacroix's "Women of Algiers" is striking, seeming to revive dialogue with the masters – El Greco, Velázquez, and Rembrandt.
Punctuated with personal photographs, this exceptional exhibition concludes as it begins: in the intimacy of a man who never stopped creating to live. These drawings reveal an octogenarian Picasso of stupefying vitality. The exhibition "Picasso. Drawing 1903-1972" runs from October 22, 2025, to December 20, 2025, at the Institut Gallery, offering visitors free admission to witness this comprehensive journey through one of history's most influential artists.
