Pablo Picasso exhibit to show at the AGO in 2012, with rarities and iconic paintings on display

The Parisian museum houses over 500 Picassos from a personal collection that the Spanish-born painter kept throughout his lifetime and includes everything from miscellaneous sketchbooks to full-blown masterpieces. More than 150 of those will be at the AGO, which will be the only Canadian stop on the Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris world tour, which has included visits to Madrid, Dubai, Helsinki, San Francisco and Sydney. The iconic pieces on display will span the entirety of Picasso’s diverse and inimitable career and will include the surrealist painting The Kiss (not to be confused with The Kiss), and two self-portraits: 1906’s appropriately titled Autoportrait and The Matador, painted three years before his death in 1970. Hopefully we, unlike others, can survive this Picasso exhibit.