The influence of African sculpture and masks on Picasso’s early work is well-known, and it is a relationship explored in a landmark exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Paintings and sculpture by Picasso are paired with an array of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century works from Africa and Oceania, as well as a number of early Iberian and pre-Columbian works. The exhibition examines the shifting of attitudes towards the colonial gaze, as well as perceptions of identity, aesthetics and culture globally.
