AMSTERDAM.- The exhibition provided the first opportunity in the Netherlands to see a major overview of how Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973) developed from a young unknown artist in the culturally bustling city of Paris into the leader of the avant-garde. The exhibition included more than seventy works of art, including such masterpieces as Self-portrait with a pallet and Moulin de la Galette and important works from private collections and museums such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

As many as 471,168 art lovers visited the exhibition Picasso in Paris, 1900-1907. “This means that three out of every four visitors to our museum also visited the Picasso exhibition, a remarkably high figure. This makes this exhibition one of the best visited in the history of our museum. We are delighted with the overwhelming interest from the Netherlands and abroad. It was interesting to note that as well as the many foreign visitors, large numbers of Dutch art lovers were able to rediscover the Van Gogh Museum and be amazed by the quality of the relatively unknown works of the young Picasso. There was also a remarkable increase in the number of visitors who bought their entrance tickets online and were therefore able to enter the museum quickly,” says Director Axel Rüger about Picasso in Paris, 1900-1907, the exhibition that ran from 18 February until 29 May 2011 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition will now travel to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, where it will be on display from 30 June until 15 October.

The related activities in the Van Gogh Museum devoted to Picasso also attracted major interest, including the dance performance Nomade by Krisztina de Châtel inspired by Picasso’s depiction of the circus, the three Sunday lectures about Picasso held on the first Sunday of every month and the children’s workshop ‘Paint your own Picasso’ at the weekend. The exhibition was sponsored by Citroën, SEACEX/Sociedad Estanal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, Gobierno de España/Ministerio de Cultura and VSBfonds (Nomade dance).

The Van Gogh Museum is now preparing for Van Gogh in Antwerp and Paris: new perspectives (22 June to 18 September) and Snapshot, Paintings and photography 1888-1915 (14 October 2011 to 8 January 2012).