Theory of Architecture Seminar: Exhibiting Picasso today? Questions about context and display

Abstract

In 2025, the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich will be showing Picasso's prints with a view to his friendship with Georges Bloch. We take up the impulse and playfully develop other possible focal points in the seminar. What is Picasso's relevance today? What critical questions arise? Different contextualisations and exhibition displays will be tested and discussed.

Objective

Students learn how to conceive an exhibition, develop their own thematic focus on Picasso's prints and reflect on how the choice of theme influences the structure of an exhibition and its display. They will have read the most important literature on the artist and will be able to contextualise and critically question it. They will familiarise themselves with Picasso's original works in the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich. As their final project, students design an exhibition display in the application ‘Digital Curating’ of the ETH’s Collection of Prints and Drawings.

Content

He was a formative example of classic patronage: Georges Bloch (1901-1984). He had made a name for himself in specialist circles by owning virtually the entire graphic oeuvre of Pablo Picasso and, as an extremely profound connoisseur, also published the catalogue raisonné of Picasso's prints in four volumes. The artist and the collector were friends. Picasso greatly appreciated Bloch's expertise and regularly exchanged ideas with him. Many of Picasso's prints came to the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich through Georges Bloch, which is why the ETH’s Collection of Prints and Drawings is dedicating an exhibition to this friendship in autumn 2025. In the seminar, we will discuss together what other focal points could be chosen for a Picasso exhibition. To this end, students will familiarise themselves with Picasso's work using the originals in the Graphische Sammlung and by reading the most important texts. They will be introduced to the concept of the planned exhibition and playfully develop their own thematic focus based on the prints. What is Picasso's relevance today? What critical questions arise? How can Picasso's prints be exhibited? On the basis of the knowledge they have gained about Picasso's prints, the students will use the application ‘Digital Curating’ of the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich to create a proposal for a theme and a corresponding exhibition display, which will be discussed together in the seminar.

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