The touring exhibiton Through the Eyes of Picasso presents more than 160 works from the collections of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and the artist's personal collection.

"Negro art? Don't know it" It was with this provocative tone that the Andalusian painter, sculptor and graphic artist made a point of denying his relationship with non-Western art. However, and as his personal collection demonstrates, the arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Asia never ceased to accompany him through numerous studio moves. The documents, letters, objects and photographs brought together in the first part of the exhibition and displayed chronologically, are evidence of this, demonstrating Picasso's interest in and curiosity for non-Western creation.

Through the Eyes of Picasso offers a comparative view of the artist's works with those of non-Western artists, and leans more towards an anthropology of art than an analysis of aesthetic relationships. The resulting confrontation reveals the similar issues those artists have had to address (nudity, sexuality, impulses and loss) through parallel plastic solutions (deforming or deconstructing bodies, for example). "Primitive" art, therefore, is no longer considered to be a stage of non-development, but rather an access to the deepest, most fundamental layers of the human being.

The exhibition has been designed by the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris and adapted by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art/Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.

The touring exhibition Through theEyes of Picasso is on display: