It's been said that Picasso changed style whenever he changed lovers. That may be an exaggeration, but when viewing the evolution of Picasso's art, it's easy to imagine the upheavals in his private life. Married twice and with four children by three women, the artist's lovers — Fernande Olivier, Olga Khoklova, Marie Therese Walter, Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque — were often his models, too.
With two exhibitions of the master's works showing concurrently in Tokyo — "His Life, His Creation" at the National Art Center, Tokyo and "Portrait of a Soul" at the Suntory Museum, both till Dec. 14 — now is a great to time to trace his creative biography. In total, 230 works are currently on show, making for the largest-scale Picasso exhibitions ever held in Japan. With Paris' Musee National Picasso under renovation, the museum's collection of masterworks are traveling here after stops in Madrid and Abu Dhabi. Musee National Picasso opened in 1985 with works that Picasso's heirs inherited from the artist, including ones that the artist had held dear until his death.
The NACT is showing a total of 170 paintings, including early ones of Picasso's first wife, Olga Khoklova. A ballerina with the Ballets Russes, Khoklova influenced his shift from Cubism to neo-Classicism in the 1910s. The painter met her while designing the costumes and set for a 1918 production in which she appeared. A conservative, high-society woman, the ballerina asked to be drawn so that her face would be distinguishable, and Picasso's portraits of her are in a neo-Classical style that recalls the work of the early 19th-century artist Ingres.