Picasso the Foreigner: An Artist in France, 1900-1973

Born from her curated exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work in Paris, biographer Annie-Cohen Solal's Picasso the Foreigner presents a bold new understanding of the artist's tempestuous relationship with his adopted homeland: France. Winner of the 2021 Prix Femina EssaiBefore Picasso became Picasso--the iconic artist now celebrated as one of France's leading figures--he was constantly surveilled by the police. Amidst political tensions in the spring of 1901, he was flagged as an anarchist by the security services--the first of many entries in what would become an extensive case file. Though he soon became the leader of the cubist avant-garde, and became increasingly wealthy as his reputation grew worldwide, Picasso's art was largely excluded from public collections in France for the next four decades. The genius who conceived Guernica as a visceral statement against fascism in 1937 was even denied French citizenship three years later, on the eve of the Nazi occupation. In a country where t