The Muses

Throughout his career, Pablo Picasso had many different kinds of relationships with women: as wives, lovers and friends. They inspired and challenged him in a creative search for new approaches, in literature, theatre, philosophy, dance, photography, ceramics and various forms of painting. Artipelag's fall 2025 exhibition highlighted eight women artists who have had a powerful influence on Picasso's life and work. They were called muses, in the Greek mythological sense, where muses were not only patrons of the arts but also generated creative inspiration collectively with others.

“With a curious mind, Picasso was immersed in a multitude of artistic movements, including cubism and surrealism, and explored developed them continuously. In this exhibition, we wanted to celebrate the women artists who sparked his creative quest,” says Bo Nilsson, director of Artipelag. 

The exhibition spanned from the early-20th-century cubist period, and his surrealist epoch in the mid-1920s, to the postwar era and life on the French Riviera. Visitors were introduced to the muses from Picasso's cubist period, such as the author Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), the artist Fernande Olivier (1881–1966) and the ballerina in the Ballets Russes, Olga Khokhlova (1891–1955), who encouraged his enthusiasm for dance, theatre and stage design. The artist and photographer Dora Maar (1907–1997) awakened his political awareness, seen in their collaboration on the painting of Guernica (1937). The photographer Lee Miller (1907–1977) modelled for Picasso and made more than 1,000 photographic portraits of him, consolidating his position as one of the most prominent contemporary artist celebs.

Visitors also met the French artist Françoise Gilot (1921–2023), who was essential to Picasso's development in the field of drawing and printmaking. They lived together in Vallauris, where, for more than 20 years, he created ceramic prototypes in the Madoura workshop, with Suzanne Ramié (1905–1974) as its artistic director. In southern France, Picasso also met Lydia Corbett (b. 1934), who went by the name of Sylvette David at the time. Lydia Corbett described this encounter as life-changing.

The Muses brought together works by these selected artists, who had a mutual creative exchange with Picasso and challenged him to find new paths in his art.

Lydia Corbett née Sylvette David, Françoise Gilot, Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Fernande Olivier, Pablo Picasso, Suzanne Ramié /Madoura, Gertrude Stein.