One of the absolute highlights of this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach was Swiss gallery’s unique exhibition: a booth designed by one of the most important artists of our generation, Claude Picasso, featuring works of the Russian Avant-Garde, curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal. Titled, “The Future is Our Only Goal,” the exhibition is an introduction of Russian Avant-Garde works on the eve of the 100 year anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution and in view of upcoming major Russian Avant-Garde surveys around the world by leading museums such as the MOMA and the Tate Modern. The exhibition space, designed by Pablo Picasso’s son, Claude Picasso, and curated by Rosenthal, features artists including Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Ilya Chashnik, Sonia Delaunay, Mikhail Larionov, Lyubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Olga Rozanova and Nikolai Suetin, among many others.
“He’s the art historian and I’m the space designer, so of course, we look at it together,” related Picasso of the installation, which highlights works by Sonia Delaunay, Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich, Ilya Chashnik, and more. L’etage Magazine got the opportunity for an exclusive interview with Claude Picasso, himself, along with the Gmurzynska Gallery’s, Isabelle Bscher. “It is interesting to do something very quickly that disappears and then you start to do another and another and another,” continued Claude Picasso, who constantly adapts his style and experiments with different mediums – from photography to cinematography, to movie directing, visual arts, graphic design, and even business, he does it all and I was fortunate enough to interview him. You can read the transcript of it below:
The architecture of the booth’s design is incredible, how did you come up with the design?
Claude Picasso: You know what? You take a piece of paper and you just start drawing out the shapes of the booth. You want to see how people would move around the space to look at everything. You want to push them a little bit to go look through the art: that is the beginning. Then I make a small model with walls and with my pencil, I try to go around the walls. Of course, it’s also because I knew about this period of art history so I tried to do something that speaks to the period.
You’ve worked with so many different mediums: from photography to cinematography, to visual arts, and graphic design, among others: what was your favorite to work with and why?
Claude Picasso: I would say photography and design along with creating spaces in architecture. This booth was the classic example of that because I was able to design it with the walls being unique in featuring photography behind the art. In regards to this period of art history, I designed something that they might not have done in those days but that I think they would have liked. The booth reflects the way they were at this time in regards of shape, color, architecture, photography and so on.
I also had the privilege of interviewing the graceful Isabelle Bscher, of Gmurzynska Gallery. She is part of the third generation of women who have led the gallery to its current spot on global rosters. This year marks the fiftieth year of its legacy of art dealing. You can read the transcript of the interview with Isabelle Bscher below:
Please tell us about how this booth represents the revolution of art in terms of diversity and invention.
Isabelle Bscher: We brought a selection of everything from the Russian Revolution to create a movement. These artists sought to combine life and art together so we have paintings, sculptures, fashion design, architectural design, porcelain design, photography and even collage. It was actually the first time people started using collage ever: they invented it. It was the first time people were incorporating writing in art. This was the first time that female artists were just as important as the male artists: it was a complete revolution.
What interested you into working with Claude Picasso?
Isabelle Bscher: Claude is a very long-time friend of the gallery. My mom has been friends with him for thirty years. We’ve worked with him many times before. We did a show with him in 1998 in Spain, where he designed the booth as well. Also in regards to the Russian Avant-Garde, he made this huge red square back then. And then we worked with him again in Paris where he designed Picasso ceramics. Claude is really a phenomenal designer with an incredible eye and he loves these works. He is a passionate collector of the Russian Avant-Garde, himself. He is a great connoisseur of it so it was really a pleasure working with him.
