Pablo Picasso in his Studio at Notre-Dame de Vie, Mougins, circa 1963 (foto Roberto Otero, Museo Picasso Málaga, Estate of Pablo Picasso, Artists Rights Society ARS, New York)

Naomi Campbell Brings A Model s Perspective to Picasso s Intimate Series

The Artist spent Decades painting Models. At A new Show in Gstaad, A Super Model gazes back.

Pablo Picasso never lacked for Models. Wives, Lovers, and Muses passed through his Canvases, captured as sinuous and sensual Abstractions. Though they bore the Likeness of their Sitters, these Portraits were often less about the Women themselves than about the Artist s own Gaze. “One Looks in Such A Way at the Model,” he once reflected, “that He Comes and Takes A Seat on the Paper.”

Next month, A new Exhibition presented by Nahmad Contemporary at Tarmak22 in Gstaad, Switzerland, will probe Picasso’s Acts of looking and how they produced Works that mingled Power, Desire, and Perception. The Show will do so by spotlighting 14 Paintings from his 1963 – 1965 Series, “Le Peintre et Son Modèle”, “The Painter and His Model”. It s also coming from A surprising Perspective, that of British Super Model Naomi Campbell, who will contribute her Reflections on the Paintings, drawing on her own Experience of being seen.

“I ve lived most of my Life in front of the Camera, which gives me A singular Perspective on the Relationship between Artist and Model,” she said in A Statement. “It s Complex, layered, and charged with Power.”