War and peace were important themes not only for Pablo Picasso. They are also highly topical again.

The name Pablo Picasso is closely associated with the motif of the dove of peace and with motifs that are explicitly directed against war and violence. In view of the worldwide unrest and military conflicts, these works have once again taken on an urgent urgency.

For this reason, the collection presentation brings together works dedicated to the motifs of war and peace. At the centre of the show are Picasso’s prints and posters, as well as high-calibre paintings from Alfred Gunzenhauser’s collection, which the Heidenheim native bequeathed to his hometown. In dialogue with current positions, a cross-section of the art museum’s collection and a multifaceted commentary on contemporary history is created.

The tour covers various chapters. The first part deals with the “war”. It begins with works of art created during the Second World War and asks what visual image forms were possible, what strategies artists found to be able to continue working during the restrictive cultural policies of the National Socialist regime and also what the recognised motifs were. A number of works illustrate the spectrum of reorientation in the post-war period. Between figuration, abstraction, reappraisal and adaptation, it is clear that Picasso had an influence on young German art. A third room shows various commentaries and documentations of violence and war, from Franco to the atomic bomb to the current war in Ukraine.

In the second chapter, Picasso’s doves and his Arcadia paintings symbolise artistic efforts to bring peace into the picture.

This is followed by two chapters on bullfighting and Pablo Picasso’s depictions of love. Here it becomes clear that both subject areas show beauty as well as violence and death. The transitions here are fluid. The last chapter of the exhibition is dedicated to the myth of Picasso. What made this artist so famous and what comments on the art market result from this?

With works by:
Horst Antes, Willi Baumeister, Julius Brauckmann, Hannah Cooke, Simone Demandt, Rineke Dijkstra, Otto Dix, Maxim Dondyuk, Fritz Göhring, Johannes Grützke, Jonas Höschl, Hubertus Hierl, Jenny Holzer, Gustav Illenberger, Paul Klee, Linde King Lichtwer, Quentin de Ladelune, Pablo Picasso, Horst Solf, Philipp Valenta, Andreas Welzenbach