See Rare Pablo Picasso Masterpieces Curated by His Daughter, Paloma Nearly a dozen of the works on view in “Picasso: Tête-à-tête” at the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan have never been on public display before The installation at 980 Madison Avenue features drawings, sculptures and paintings from throughout Picasso's career. Owen Conway / Gagosian “You see me here, and yet I’ve already changed,” Pablo Picasso said in 1963. “I’m already elsewhere.” This mercurial sentiment guides “Picasso: Tête-à-tête,” an exhibition of nearly 70 rarely seen Picasso paintings, sculptures and drawings on view at the Gagosian Gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Many of the works on view are sourced from Picasso’s estate and curated by Paloma Picasso, the youngest of the artist’s four children. Nearly a dozen of the works on view have never been exhibited publicly before. “A number of the works we selected haven’t been seen since my father had them in his studio,” Paloma says in a statement. “To have them reunited with important examples from other collections will be a very special event.”Paloma, now 76, recalls sitting with her father in his studio as he created masterpieces. “Because I was a very quiet little girl, I was able to stay with him,” she tells the New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin. “He would let me stay next to him while he was painting because I could spend hours without uttering a word.” The six drawings, 24 sculptures and 38 paintings in the exhibition date to between 1896 and 1972—the entirety of Picasso’s career. Instead of a chronological organization, however, the works are arranged more organically, with artworks from different eras hanging side by side. That may be how Picasso would have wanted it. At a 1932 retrospective in Paris—one of the few exhibitions that the artist installed himself—Picasso eschewed a chronological organization. Instead, he hung the 225 paintings according to his personal vision and associations between works. Portrait de Femme (Marie-Thérèse), Pablo Picasso, 1936 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society / Sandra Pointet “These works complicate our understanding of Picasso,” art historian Marcel Dumont tells Rain magazine. “They reveal an artist constantly questioning his own solutions, always striving to reinvent what he had already mastered. Even in his private moments of creation, Picasso’s inventive spirit was relentless.” But for an artist of Picasso’s stature, private moments don’t remain private for long. Paloma was just 24 when her father died in 1973. She’s long reckoned with his legacy, both for better and for worse. Picasso was known for mistreating the women in his life. For instance, many of his works depict Marie-Thérèse Walter, a model who was just 17 when she began an affair with the artist, who was married and in his mid-40s at the time. After Paloma’s mother, the French painter Françoise Gilot, split with Picasso in the 1950s, she wrote a memoir about the artist’s abusive behavior during their relationship. After its publication, Picasso never contacted Paloma or her brother, Claude, again. Femme au Béret Bleu Assise dans un Fauteuil Gris, Manches Rouges (Marie-Thérèse), Pablo Picasso, 1937 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society / Sandra Pointet “When my mother wrote the book, she wanted to make him less of a god and more of a man,” Paloma tells the Times. “And it doesn’t make him less great where he’s great. He’s the greatest. But he can also have weaknesses. And that’s OK.” “Picasso: Tête-à-tête” will be Gagosian’s final show at its flagship 980 Madison Avenue gallery, which it has occupied since 1989. “I have been fortunate to present more than 20 exhibitions dedicated to Pablo Picasso throughout my career, and it seems only fitting that a blockbuster show of the artist’s work should close out our time at 980 Madison,” Larry Gagosian, the art dealer who owns the galleries, says in the statement. Tête de Femme, Pablo Picasso, 1957 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society / Sandra Pointet For Paloma, curating her father’s artworks is something of a homecoming, after years of staking out an independent career as a jewelry designer and stepping outside the shadow of his legacy. “I made every effort for my work not to be connected to my father, which is why now I can do it,” she tells the Times. “I’ve proven to myself that I can exist on my own merits. I think I had to prove to myself that I could be worth something on my own.” “Picasso: Tête-à-tête” is on view at the Gagosian Gallery at 980 Madison Avenue in New York City through July 3, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.