Picasso at Tate Modern leaves mixed reactions

By Theresa Thompson, Timeless Travels' Art Correspondent

Pablo Picasso, The Three Dancers 1925, Tate. © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2025.

The title of the exhibition, Theatre Picasso, drew me to Tate Modern. After all, an exhibition showing Tate’s entire collection of Picasso works is bound to be good, and it is no secret that Picasso loved a performance, in art as well as his life, bullfighting, the circus, ballet, flamenco, you name it…  so there was a lot to look forward to.

But how to stage a show of 50 works by one of the most influential and well-known figures of the 20th century – and, make it different?

Tate’s answer is to arrange a show around Picasso’s painting The Three Dancers, 1925, marking the centenary of the year he unveiled that famous painting while also exploring the performative nature of his work. And marking Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary.

Tate says that Picasso "was fascinated by performers and their boundless capacity for transformation, and he approached painting as a dramatic act in itself.” A central part of his public persona, or brand was as Picasso ‘the artist’ – a mythologised version of Picasso which portrayed him as both a celebrated creative genius and an outsider.

Theatre Picasso is ‘staged’ in a gallery space transformed into a darkened theatre-like setting by award-winning contemporary artist Wu Tsang (b. 1982), New York and Berlin based artist, filmmaker, and performer, and writer and artist/curator Enrique Fuenteblanca (b. 1996), to showcase Picasso’s art inspired by his approach to performance.

Born in Malaga, Spain in 1881 (d.1973), Picasso experimented with a wide range of styles and themes in his long career, most notably inspiring Cubism (a leading example of which, Weeping Woman is on view). The experimental nature of this exhibition follows suit.

It starts with a film clip from 1937, filmed by Man Ray, of Picasso, wearing curly wig, cigar in hand, ‘performing’ as Carmen. It is from a holiday movie, apparently, and made just after he had painted Guernica. Next, you see Picasso in a bull’s head as Minotaur, 1968, and then hear him reading some of his poetry so that his voice accompanies you as you enter the main gallery space where most of the famous works are shown.

Pablo Picasso, Tapestry Le Minotaure 1935, made after a work by Pablo Picasso dated 1928. Wool and silk tapestry, woven in Aubusson

Donated by Marie Cuttoli in 1950. Musée Picasso, Antibes.  © François Fernandez © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2025.

Here, the works are displayed on racks like those in a store, making it feel it a bit back stage, and neither grouped chronologically nor in historical context. So, you come across celebrated works like Weeping Woman, 1937 – an unsettling work that says a lot about Picasso’s yen for drama – and Nude Woman in a Red Armchair, 1932, Girl in a Chemise, c.1905, or Youth in Blue, 1905-6, virtually at random. Interwoven among them are prints, drawings, sculptures, textile works and collages, alongside key loans from Picasso museums in France.

I came across The Three Dancers almost by chance. The revolutionary painting was said to be ‘at the heart of the exhibition’ but it felt awkwardly displayed, not at all the centrepiece expected. Still, it was a pleasure to see this enigmatic ‘dance’ of overlapping intertwined figures again. Picasso had thought the painting better than Guernica (his monumental anti-war painting of 1937) and kept it for forty years, selling it to Tate in 1965. Incidentally, the painting’s acquisition was hard-won by Sir Roland Penrose, a trustee of the gallery and a friend of Picasso’s (Surrealist artist Penrose was married to Lee Miller whose photography retrospective I reviewed in a previous post). Picasso had painted the work when devastated by the death of his friend, Ramon Pichot in 1925.

Some paintings are so well-known, or more often seen in reproduction, that it’s easy to forget to look properly at them when standing in front of the real thing. This painting repays any effort in study. Much has been written about it, its style, significance and symbolism much discussed. A QR code on the wall label leads to Tate’s research uncovering new details about the work. Tate website quotes Picasso saying “I have always felt that it should be called The Death of Pichot rather than The Three Dancers. The tall black figure behind the dancer on the right is the presence of Pichot.”

Circus artists, bullfighters, flamenco dancers, friends, artists’ models - performers all – then around the back, a display of stage designs for the Ballets Russes and artists all deserving of their moment in the spotlight.

Pablo Picasso, The Acrobat, 1930. Paris, Musée National Picasso-Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Adrien Didierjean © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2025.

A highpoint (besides The Three Dancers) was to see Acrobat, 1930, a painting that would stand out in any parade. A loan from the Musée Picasso in Paris, this surrealist work shows a plain white figure twisting around itself in an unimaginable way within the confines of its square frame. The wall text suggests that the “acrobat’s contortions are reminiscent of Picasso’s own evolution as a painter. Just as the acrobat experiments with the forms adopted by their body, Picasso experimented with the way he presented himself and represented reality, playing with our expectations of societal norms.”

In some ways, that seems to sum up the show itself. The exhibition played with my expectations. I had gone expecting to see Picasso’s art – and who would bypass that chance? – with a hefty dose of curiosity. I was eager to see how it would be done. I had mixed reactions.

Perhaps some of my misgivings about the layout would have dissolved and the theatricality of the show better enhanced, had I had the good fortune to go when something was being performed on the stage within the exhibition space. The presence of the roped off vacant stage teased; something was missing, like a theatre between shows.

Having said that, I checked and see that Tsang and Fuentablanca have curated a series of performances tied to the exhibition, staged in the South Tank on the ground floor. The early October performances are over but a second set is planned for Friday 6th and Saturday 7th March 2026, featuring contemporary flamenco dancer Rocío Molina. Tickets aren’t available to book yet, but keep looking on Tate’s website.

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Theatre Picasso

Tate Modern

Showing until: 12 April 2026

See: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/theatre-picasso