Pablo Picasso once said: 'It isn't up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise, it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words.'
True. Yet someone new to his work may be overwhelmed by the famous Spanish artist's many hidden symbols, surreal characters and distorted shapes.
A selection of 56 of Picasso's masterpieces has arrived in Hong Kong from the Musee National Picasso in Paris and are on display at the Heritage Museum in Sha Tin until July 22. The exhibition charts his development from 14-year-old prodigy until just before his death, in 1973. It covers his various periods: blue, rose, primitivism, neoclassicism and cubism.
Apo Wu Pui-shan, the museum's assistant curator, shares some tips on how to fully appreciate some of the most notable works at the exhibition.
The Sculptor
In Picasso's 1931 painting The Sculptor, you can vaguely make out the figure of a sculptor observing his two female statues intensely.
But unlike in his earlier works such as The Barefoot Girl in 1895, Picasso painted his characters impressionistically: with distorted limbs and patchy, multi-coloured faces. This shows how different artists and their styles had shaped Picasso's views. In his early years, he drew inspiration from African sculpture. Later he became passionate about surrealism. 'Picasso never confined himself to just one style. He kept on experimenting [and] thinking out of the box,' Wu says.