By lucky chance, the Gallery of New South Wales is currently hosting the largest (only?) ever exhibition of Picasso works in Australia, courtesy of the Musee National Picasso in Paris. It seemed to good an opportunity to miss.

As you would expect the key signature pieces have not made the journey and so, whilst it is a large exhibition covering his entire painting life, it is largely made up of studies and minor works. In many ways, though, this was an advantage as the paintings were fresh to the eye and did not suffer from having seen seen many times before in reproduction.

One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition was The Acrobat, shown above. The simple but effective lines of this work were very powerful and it was no wonder this is the work which the Gallery have chosen to feature on the cover of the catalogue.

But also very effective were a number of smaller works such as The Bathers, below, from 1918. It is re minder of just how early in his life he emerges as a very formidable painter.

The exhibition was easy to get into, easy to navigate, highly enjoyable and well worth a visit.