Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced Picasso, the Figure, a landmark exhibition dedicated to Pablo Picasso, widely regarded as the most influential artist of the 20th century.
Developed in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso-Paris and France Muséums, the exhibition runs from January 31 to May 31, 2026.
The exhibition traces Picasso’s evolving treatment of figuration, from his early experiments with Cubism through classical portraiture and Surrealism, to the bold late works that defined his final years.
It offers a chronological and thematic journey through the artist’s career, examining how the human figure remained central to his radical reinvention of artistic form.
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Curated by Cécile Debray, President of the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Virginie Perdrisot-Cassan, Chief Curator and Head of Sculpture and Ceramics at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; and Aisha AlAhmadi, Associate Curator at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the exhibition intertwines Picasso’s artistic transformations with Greek mythology.
The narrative spans painting, sculpture, drawing and ceramics, presenting a multifaceted view of his creative output.
Picasso, the Figure brings together more than 130 artworks, including seven from Louvre Abu Dhabi’s own collection and six from the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.
Additional loans come from France, Qatar, Lebanon, the UAE and West Asia, with contributions from eight lending institutions, private collections and one art gallery.
Participating lenders include:
- Musée du Louvre
- Mobilier National (Paris)
- Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
- Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut)
- Meem Gallery (Dubai)
- Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah)
Key works by six Arab artists are featured throughout the exhibition, highlighting Picasso’s influence on modern art in the Arab world.
These include paintings by Iraqi artists Dia al-Azzawi, Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said, as well as Egyptian artist Ramses Younan. A painted ceramic work by Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine is also presented, reflecting the reciprocal artistic exchanges between Picasso and artists from the region.
Picasso exhibition
Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: “We are delighted to unveil Picasso, the Figure, a first-of-its-kind exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi that explores the legacy of one of the leading artistic figures of the 20th century, inviting visitors to experience an exceptional selection of artworks spanning instrumental periods of his career.
“We are equally proud to present works by Arab artists whose practices highlight the ongoing dialogue with Picasso’s legacy, and more broadly, between cultures that defines our museum’s mission.
“This exhibition reflects our commitment to connecting global artistic narratives, and we are deeply grateful to our partners and lenders, regionally and internationally, whose collaboration has made it possible.”
Cécile Debray and Virginie Perdrisot-Cassan added, “This first monographic exhibition devoted to Picasso at Louvre Abu Dhabi offers an original journey centred on the question of the figure.
“Conceived from the world’s richest collection of the artist’s works and developed in a spirit of exchange with the teams and collections of Louvre Abu Dhabi, an institution that stands as a cultural crossroads between East and West, archaeology and modern art, the exhibition explores how Picasso continually reinvented representation and expression, from the hieratic signs of Cubism to the classical bodies of the 1920s and the hybrid beings of his Surrealist period.”
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