Pablo Picasso returns to African roots

Pablo Picasso has landed in SA, and he's looking distinctly African. Go and meet him at the Picasso and Africa exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town

Some 84 works of the master are on display, courtesy of Standard Bank, the French Embassy, the French Institute of South Africa, Air France, Business Arts South Africa and the Iziko South African National Gallery, in collaboration with the Picasso Museum in Paris. The exhibition took three years to put together, says Standard Bank Arts Sponsorship manager Mandy van der Spuy, and was not without its difficulties. It has the blessing of both South African President Thabo Mbeki and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac.
It was decided at a first meeting of the museum officials in 2003 that instead of a "mini-retrospective" exhibition, what would be more challenging would be an exhibition to explore new possibilities and open new doors. Hence an exhibition that looks at "the relationship between Africa and Picasso and to offer, for the first time, and in Africa, a dialogue between the African continent and the artist whose work encompasses more of the art of the previous century than that of any other".
Where: Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town
When: 13 April until 21 May
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Source: City of Johannesburg