Musee Picasso

The pinnacle of our trip. The Musee Picasso is a small, well-curated museum in the Marais district of Paris. The museum has a diverse collection of over 3,000 pieces by Picasso as well as pieces from his personal art collection (Rosseaus, Matisses, Cezannes, Modiglianis and others) and photographs taken of Picasso showing his process. Most of the docents were very strict about photo taking, but we were able to sneak a few in. The museum is in an old hotel that was built in the 1600s. Right now, there is an interesting art installation using the building and the viewers as subjects. The artist, who photographed Picasso during his lifetime, has divided the building up with these large, mirror-like panels that reflect the viewer looking at the art, looking at themselves. The photos below, show the largest panel that divides the front of the building (bonus points if you can find me and Nae Nae taking a photo of ourselves).

Detail of a lone experiment with pointillism.

One thing Nae Nae and I talked about is how prolific and experimental Picasso was. He tried everything. And he became obsessed with a subject and then painted, sculpted and drew it in a million different ways. I guess I already knew that from reading and art history courses, but it was another thing to see it and see some of the less famous experiments -- the mixed media sculpture, impressionism, pointillism, paper mache etc.