Special Picasso Lecture by Dr. Anne Prah-Perochon.
In the Spring of 1904, a young penniless Pablo Picasso lured by Montmartre underground culture… and cheap living moved there in a sort of artists’ commune, Le Bateau Lavoir. He stayed in this ramshackle building for the better part of a decade. His presence was a magnet for budding artists Juan Gris, Braque, Modigliani, Matisse, for poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob. They revolved around him like planets around the sun, forming La Bande à Picasso and sharing loves, quarrels, febrile discussions and expanded vision. It was in the Bateau Lavoir that Juan Gris and Braque made their first bold stabs at Cubism, that Apollinaire’s's poetry set the stage for the Surrealist movement and that Picasso painted the iconoclastic LesDemoiselles d’Avignon.

It was at the Bateau Lavoir that collector Gertrude Stein posed for her famous portrait. If at Bateau Lavoir the most audacious creations were elaborated, the nearby colorful cabaret Au Lapin Agile was the setting of heavy drinking and experimentation with drugs. It was also the site of hilarious pranks and hoaxes of epic dimensions!

The lecture will present those larger-than-life characters, will focus not only on their creations but on their passions, their pranks and will visit their favorite haunts. This lecture in English will be given on September 23, at the De Young Museum, Koret Auditorium, 7 p.m.
For more information: (415) 750-7694 or publicprograms@famsf.org