PICASSO: THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Documentary for BBC Two This Autumn

When Pablo Picasso passed away in 1973, the art world lost a legend and the world lost an innovator who turned 20th century art on its head time and time again. Since then, however, we’ve heard stories about how the great master was cruel, womanising, coercive, and stole from other cultures without giving any credit. Fifty years after his death, a new three-part BBC Two series, PICASSO: THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, examines his legacy, including the suicides and betrayals in addition to the stunning artworks that he left behind.

A century of artistic evolution and contradiction

By morphing from the Blue to the Rose to Cubism and neo-Classicism and finally into the avant-garde, Picasso captured a century of conflict, despair, peace, and hope. He painted some of the most iconic works of the 20th century, including “Guernica,” “Weeping Woman,” and “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Over the course of his eight-decade career, he produced enough work to fill an aeroplane hangar. His work often dealt with dark themes like violence and lust, but he also excelled at capturing tender moments of innocence and purity. Even in his own life, he was a bundle of contradictions.

Rare testimonies from Picasso’s daughter Paloma and grandchildren Diana, Bernard, and Olivier, as well as interviews with his friends and recordings from his many lovers, provide a window into the paintings, places, and people he left behind.

Frances Morris, former Director of Tate Modern; Anne Umland, Senior Curator at MoMA; Jean Louis Andral, Director of the Picasso Museum Antibes; Michael Cary, Curator, Gagosian galleries; and British art critic Louisa Buck all contribute to the three-part series, which features rare personal archive and behind-the-scenes access to the museums that bear his name.

Artists Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, and Jenny Saville, authors Siri Hustvedt and Colm Toibn, psychotherapist and author Phillipa Perry, and V&A East Director Gus Caley-Hayford all contribute their thoughts and opinions.

Head of Arts and Classical Music TV Suzy Klein says

“Picasso was a secretive genius – a man who didn’t talk about his inner life but instead poured it out onto the canvas – changing his artistic styles as often as he changed wives and girlfriends. When he died, he was lionised, but it’s only now, 50 years after his death, that we have the critical distance to unpick those deep connections between Picasso’s life and his art, and to give an unflinching look at the horror and brilliance of what he left behind.”

Gems from the archives

Art On The BBC: The Great Salvador Dali; Andy Warhol’s America; Maggi Hambling: Making Love With The Paint; David Hockney: The Art of Seeing; Becoming Matisse; Georgia O’Keeffe: By Myself; Keith Haring: Street Art Boy; and Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist are just some of the classic BBC art documentaries from the Archive that will air alongside the series on BBC Four.

Who is making the series

Picasso: The Beauty and The Beast is a Minnow Films production, Produced and Directed by John O’Rourke; the Series Director is Alice Perman and Executive Producers Sophie Leonard, Alicia Kerr and Greg Sanderson. The series was commissioned for BBC Two and BBC iPlayer by Mark Bell.