In the serene galleries of Louvre Abu Dhabi, a new chapter in one of the most transformative artistic journeys of the 20th century unfolds. Picasso, The Figure — a landmark exhibition running from January 21 to May 31, 2026 — revisits Pablo Picasso’s lifelong engagement with the human body, revealing how even his most radical innovations remained rooted in a profound connection to the figure.
The show brings together works spanning seven decades, drawn from the artist’s prolific output. Yet rather than presenting them as a conventional chronological survey, the exhibition shapes Picasso’s evolution through a series of thematic gestures — movements of line, form and presence that defined his vision of the body in all its complexity.
At its heart is the idea that Picasso, even at his most abstract and fragmented, remained deeply invested in the human form. From the sculptural solidity of his early figures to the shattered planes of Cubism, from the surreal hybrids of the 1930s to the expressive urgency of his later years, Picasso’s work continually posed a vital question: What does it mean to be human — in body, in myth, in spirit?
This thematic framing allows the exhibition to explore not just Picasso’s genius, but the shifting contexts that shaped it. Encounters with African art, Romanesque sculpture and Iberian antiquity opened new visual vocabularies; travels to Italy confronted him with the ancient figure as physical presence, not just historical ideal. Such influences are woven into the show’s narrative threads, revealing the deep intercultural currents behind his innovations.
One of the exhibition’s powerful moments comes from its dialogue with the Arab world. Picasso’s Guernica, painted in response to the horrors of war, resonates profoundly here in Abu Dhabi — not as distant history but as a shared meditation on destruction, resilience and witness. In conversation with works by Iraqi artist Dia Al Azzawi, the exhibition bridges continents and histories, underscoring the universal relevance of Picasso’s concerns.
Myth and metamorphosis also play central roles. Figures like the Minotaur — part man, part beast — recur throughout Picasso’s work as mirrors of psychological depth and duality. Later galleries bring these mythic energies into dialogue with his vibrant late style, where colour, gesture and double vision coexist in a vivid celebration of form and feeling.
More than a retrospective, Picasso, The Figure is an invitation — to see a master at work, to witness the many ways one artist grappled with the eternal question of embodiment, and to reflect on how those explorations continue to resonate in our own time and place.
Running until the end of May at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the exhibition offers visitors not just an encounter with masterpieces, but a space to reconsider the human figure — in art, in history, and in ourselves.
