Picasso/Asia: A conversation, at M+ in Hong Kong, is simply splendid. It is innovative: not a standard chronological parade of ‘masterpieces’, but a rich and probing interrogation of the most famous European artist of the twentieth century, paired with an intelligent consideration of the impact of his work in Asia, and how it connected with Asian artists. The cover of the accompanying book shows a hilarious 2010 remaking by Japanese trickster Yasumasa Morimura of a famous 1952 photograph of Picasso by Robert Doisneau; it is playful, pungent, and undeniably affectionate, a dazzling example of curiosity among Asian artists about this towering figure. In fact, Picasso specifically addressed Asia only once, with the 1951 painting Massacre in Korea. More on that later.

There have been many Picasso shows, including in Asia. This one – a collaboration between M+ and the Musée national Picasso-Paris (MnPP), and curated by Doryon Chong and François Dareau from the two museums – has a particular focus. Everything in the exhibition, and the handsome book, goes straight to the point: what is the Picasso myth, and how was it made? Is it relevant today, for Asian artists and audiences?

The exhibition addresses Picasso in dialogue with Asian artists through four archetypes: The Genius, the commonest archetype for great artists; The Outsider, The Magician, and The Apprentice. Each offers an excellent introduction to Picasso’s work, important since many visitors will be seeing it for the first time: Hong Kong’s last major Picasso exhibition was in 2012, and today M+ welcomes far larger audiences. Since opening in November 2021, M+ has become perhaps the most significant contemporary art museum in the region. In early 2024, The Art Newspaper reported that M+ was fifteenth on the list of the world’s most visited museums, with just under 2,800,000 visitors. Last year, thirty-one per cent of visitors were from Hong Kong, forty-two per cent from Mainland China and Macau, and twenty-seven per cent from other countries, an increasing percentage as tourism continues to recover after the Covid pandemic.

Importantly, the four archetypes explore works by thirty-one artists from Asia, as if in two-way communication with Picasso. These interactions recapitulate, in a myriad of ways, how artists talk to each other, whether to inspire, commune, or critique. So much richer than the older idea of ‘influence’! The Genius (The First Archetype) opens with a commanding 2011 portrait of Picasso by leading Chinese painter Zheng Fanzhi, a straightforward tribute. Later we see the marvellous series ‘Pleasure of Picasso’ by Tanaami Keiichi (1936-2024), deliberate borrowings made in the first years of Covid-19 (2019-23) by an elderly artist staving off isolation, even death. Again, Alfredo Lam’s fine 1949 painting Woman with a bird, by a Cuban of Cantonese heritage and friend of Picasso, shows the close connections between the two artists. But other less direct relationships are equally striking: the postwar popularisation of Picasso’s famous Dove of Peace, for example, in the infant People’s Republic of China in popular magazines and posters, and on stamps. There is even a traditional ink painting of the Dove by the elderly Qi Bashi (1863-1957), clear homage to the famous Spaniard. (First-day attendees were engrossed.) Elsewhere in the museum, Lee Mingwei’s temporary installation Guernica in sand, meticulously recreating the famous 1937 painting on a grand scale, and scheduled to be swept away in performance in late June, poignantly underscores the Spaniard’s long advocacy for peace.

Installation view of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia - A conversation, 2025 (photograph by Lok Cheng, courtesy of M+)

Many connections between Picasso and Asian artists in this exhibition are more allusive, discursive propositions about affinities of interest, for example, rather than direct emulation. Early in The Genius section one sees a group of portraits from 1970s Beijing by the Wuming (No Name) painters, which claimed independence from official Chinese Socialist Realism simply by using modern styles. The Hong Kong painters Luis Chan in the 1950s, or Firenze Lai around fifty years later, are included. since the artists’ eccentric visions seem to accord with Picasso’s own fierce idiosyncrasies.

Similarly, The Outsider and The Magician explore the idea of the ‘master’ in general, as well as in Picasso’s case. Criticism of the artist is not shirked. Dareau mentions ‘chauvinism’ in his essay, and the MnPP spokespeople frankly address Picasso’s well-documented abuse of his female partners, along with his fascination with women. In the exhibition, a marvellous group of Picasso’s portraits of some of the women in his life face off against Nalini Malani’s 2023 video animation addressing violence against women.

The Apprentice, the final section, carries the most conceptually important idea, a punchline as moving as it is unexpected. Picasso was an inveterate borrower of other people’s work. Woman with a stiletto (1931), for instance, drew on Jacques-Louis David’s French revolutionary painting The Death of Marat (1793). Seeing concentrated evidence of his drive to continue learning into old age is striking, and this is where Massacre in Korea appears. It shows how Picasso studied works by many artists – Goya and Manet are both invoked in Massacre in Korea – but it also suggests that others will mine his work in turn. Demonstrating Picasso’s lifelong learning through dialogue with artistic forebears is a masterstroke: it is a way to think through his working method, rather than simply asserting his superiority. If we are able to unpack the myth of Picasso’s ‘genius’, we can also think critically about the mythological status accorded any artist and, at the same time, neatly dispose of easy ideas of original and copy, let alone postmodernist imitation. This is a brilliant way to conclude this complex and rewarding exhibition, which is packed with extraordinary works, telling juxtapositions, and unexpected changes of presentation and pace.

Massacre in Korea by Pablo Picasso, 1951 (© GrandPalaisRmn [Musée national Picasso-Paris] / Mathieu Rabeau)

The generous selection of fine works by Picasso, almost entirely from the exceptional collection at MnPP, but some from Madrid’s Reina Sofia, and of Asian artists from M+’s rich holdings, create a wonderful show. But this project is twofold: the handsome publication can stand alone, while exploring the same works, the same ideas. This thoughtfully constructed book boasts excellent original essays by Chong and Dareau, supplemented by a fascinating illustrated chronology by Hester Chan. All three are lively and provocative, scholarly but beautifully written, an original contribution to twentieth-century art studies. Copious excellent reproductions explore many works by Picasso that are essential to the arguments but are not included in the exhibition.

Thus the book has a life independent of the physical exhibition, a contemporary investigation of Picasso and his legacies from an Asian standpoint. As a consequence, Picasso/Asia: A conversation has global relevance: it models questions of influence and imitation, indebtedness and resistance, that accompany all relationships between leading artists and their distant counterparts. (Australians know these questions well.)

All this is happening in the dynamic context of Hong Kong. At the opening weekend talks, M+ Director Suhanya Raffel spoke about how productive cross-cultural dialogues can be, pointing out that, by working together, M+ and the Musée Picasso-Paris – museums with strikingly different missions – may create new narratives. For M+, Picasso was unpacked in, and for, the East Asian region, reframing his work through the lens of the M+ collection. Cécile Debray, the distinguished curator now president of the MnPP, said the project offered new ways for the MnPP’s exceptional holdings to travel, and, even more importantly, invited new ways to see Picasso. ‘What does it mean, Picasso today?’, she asked. In fact, Debray sees the M+ show as a pilot project for renewing ways to frame Picasso’s work.

Doryon Chong has suggested that Picasso/Asia offers a new exhibition typology, exploring propositions and asking questions of international significance. I believe this is so: these two museums are open, generous, questioning, places of meeting and conversation, and the innovations in this collaboration are exemplary.

Picasso/Asia: A conversation is a complete pleasure – worth the stopover, and also a rewarding read.

Picasso/Asia: A conversation is at M+, Hong Kong, until 13 July 2025. Picasso/Asia: A conversation, published by Thames & Hudson, London, 2025, RRP $90, is available in Australia.