Mostly 10am on a Monday morning is a great time to see an exhibition, positively relaxed and often empty, but this Monday it was buzzing. There are two major exhibitions on and one of them, Picasso 1932, has just opened.
1932 was an intensely creative period in the life of the 20th century’s most influential artist. Always prolific, he was just 51 years old, established and seeing younger artists nipping at his heels whilst his contemporary Matisse seemed a creative powerhouse.
There are some pictures from outside of the year, mainly to put his work into context, but there really are an amazing number works for just one year. 
This is the first ever solo Pablo Picasso exhibition at Tate Modern. It brings people face-to-face with more than 100 paintings, sculptures and drawings, mixed with family photographs and rare glimpses into his personal life. It is a huge exhibition, entirely unexpected in the context of just one year’s work.
By 1932 Picasso was married to the dancer Olga Khokhlova but had begun a relationship with the much younger Marie-Therese Walter.
His artwork Woman with dagger is a fairly straightforward reference to the rivalry and conflict in his love life
Thought the January of 1932 Picasso painted a series of pictures of a woman, almost certainly Marie-Therese Walter, sitting in an armchair, reading, sleeping or apparently listening to music. despite the common subject they all have a surprisingly different feel to them.
& in the middle of these seated figures are some still lives.
In early March 1932 Girl before a Mirror was completed, echoing a famous work by Manet.
A series of large horizontal nudes was completed in April.
Possibly influenced by the appearance in Europe of Japanese erotica or “shunga” art.
Picasso painted a number of reclining nudes in June/July of 1932.
Within the show there are also a number of his charcoal drawings, not studies but completed works in their own right.
In September Picasso engaged with more classical themes including religious such as the crucifiction.
Towards the end of the year the theme of his painting turned darker, towards drowning and the possibility of rescue, maybe because of an incident involving his young lover (Picasso could not swim).
The Bathers
Ball Players on the Beach
Woman on the Beach
The Rescue
By the end of the year, his young lover was pregnant and his had wife left him with their son. The political and economic situation in Europe was deteriorating rapidly. Hitler had been appointed Chancellor in Germany and Mussolini had consolidated his hold on Italy. Spain became engulfed in a civil war in 1933 and within six months the world was once more at war
