The second phase of the painter's life is marked, in 1937, by Guernica, executed for the International Exposition of Paris; in this work, the atrocities of war have produced visible screams; colour finds no place amidst the acts of violence; the sensitivity of the artist has succeeded in reproducing, on canvas, anguish and fear.
By means of the exposition Picasso-Dora Maar, 1935-1945, the Picasso Museum of Paris has recently evoked the black period of wartime, also giving spectators the opportunity to explore, by means of paintings, the fruitful sentimental and artistic relationship which Picasso had with Dora.
Now, Palazzo Grassi proposes an exposition which covers three years of his life: 1945-1948. This exposition is the result of a contextual selection; but it may be considered to be the exposition of one of the happiest periods of his life. This exposition follows the closing of the Antibes Museum, where Picasso's La joie de vivre, painted in 1946, was displayed.
This work, now in Venice, reveals the artist's joy due to the end of the war. Colour has returned, and with it, serenity, through the development of certain motifs inspired by the Mediterranean Garden of Eden and its mythology. About two hundred works are on display; they demonstrate the great variety of artistic means utilized by Picasso, boasting the glory of a sensitive but splendid patrimony, earthly but legendary.