Society and Book Culture: Exhibition “Pablo Picasso: A Painter amidst Poets. Books from the Collection of Mark Bashmakov” staged in St. Petersburg

The exhibition “Pablo Picasso. A Painter amidst Poets. Books from the Collection of Mark Bashmakov” has opened in the General Staff building of the State Hermitage (St. Petersburg). It showcases some 30 rare publications illustrated by the outstanding artist.

The celebrated series of compositions for Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Balzac’s Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece) and Pierre Reverdy’s Le chant des morts (The Song of the Dead) are displayed on such a broad scale for the first time in the Hermitage. Along with them there are other important works by Picasso – illustrations for Ilia Zdanevich’s Afat, Pindar’s Eighth Pythian Ode, Lysistrata, and books by Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob.

This event launches a new programme of exhibitions, which spotlights books by 20th-century artists.