This year’s congress turns to the topic of “Picasso and History” in order to explore new ways of understanding the artist’s work.

The interpretation of Picasso’s work has hitherto been dominated by formalism, semiology, and biography. It seems productive, now, to turn to an historical approach as a guide to the creation and reception of Picasso’s work. The nine decades of the artist’s life extended over several tumultuous periods of modern history. To what extent did Picasso weave this history—social, economic, political and cultural—into the fabric of his paintings, sculptures, drawing and prints? And to what extent did these historical factors shape our understanding of Picasso? In particular, how did historical factors affect the ways that other artists made use of his work? Picasso exercised a tremendous influence on artists—not only in Europe and the United States, but also in Latin America and Asia. Indeed, it might be argued that Picasso was the first “global” artist. His work offered a variety of visual languages that artists used to express the psychological effects of modernization, the contest between political movements, and the struggle against colonialism.

The main objective of this Fourth Congress to explore new interpretations made possible by research into the historical context and reverberations of Picasso’s work.