Picasso Takes Center Stage: Tate Modern's Theatrical Reimagining of a Master's Legacy

Theatre Picasso, a major exhibition at Tate Modern, brings together familiar works by the Spanish master, from his iconic The Three Dancers (1925) to Weeping Woman (1937) and Nude Woman in a Red Armchair (1932). But what sets this exhibition apart is its "staging" by contemporary artist Wu Tsang and writer and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca. 

The gallery space has been transformed into a theatrical environment where visitors move through various "theatre" spaces—from storage and backstage to main stage, finally passing through a stage curtain into the audience seating area. Most of the exhibition is presented in dramatically low lighting that allows each artwork to shine.

Rather than organizing by chronology or stylistic periods, the show explores themes including The Painter and the Model, The Artist's Studio, and Animal, War and Violence. In The Painter and the Model section, the paintings showcase Picasso's stylistic evolution while highlighting his possessive relationship with his models—often lovers—and his unsettling views of them.

Picasso maintained a close relationship with the performing arts throughout his career. He designed dance sets and costumes, wrote and directed his own play Desire Caught by the Tail (1941), and contributed to many stage productions, notably with the Ballet Russes.

The curators examine Picasso's fascination with performers: circus artists, bullfighters, and flamenco dancers. These figures appear throughout the exhibition in works such as Girl in a Chemise (c.1905), Horse with a Youth in Blue (1905-6), and Bullfight Scene (1960) from Tate's collection, alongside Acrobat (1930) lent by Musée national Picasso-Paris.

The exhibition also explores the concept of "performativity"—how words and actions shape identity and effect change—as a lens for understanding Picasso's artistic practice. Through his carefully cultivated persona, Picasso created a myth around himself as both celebrated artist and outsider, often expressed through fantastical imagery such as the wool and silk tapestry Minotaur (1935), displayed publicly in the UK for the first time on loan from Musée Picasso, Antibes.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1956 film The Mystery of Picasso offers a rare glimpse of the artist at work, demonstrating how Picasso used art as performance.

Whether you're a longtime Picasso devotee or approaching his work with fresh eyes, this exhibition reveals unexpected dimensions of an artist who was always performing—both in his art and in his life.