Rediscovering Pablo Picasso's War and Peace

To recount the genesis of War and Peace, a political fresco with universal appeal created in 1952, the Alpes-Maritimes National Museums of the 20th Century will inaugurate a new exhibition in 2026, designed as a large-format projection. Aimed at all audiences, this immersive format is designed to enrich the visitor experience and reveal the multiple meanings of this pacifist manifesto.

This exhibition is accessible in French and English, as well as to people with reduced mobility. The screenings are scheduled continuously in the chapel, except when contemporary art exhibitions are being held, in which case they are scheduled at the Magnelli Museum of Ceramics.

An educational programme consisting of three previously unseen films

• Film 1 (duration: 6 minutes)

‘Pablo Picasso's War and Peace: the genesis of a committed work’ 
This film traces the genesis of Picasso's masterpiece War and Peace, created in the post-war period on the French Riviera, in the small town of Vallauris, where the Spanish master lived and worked from 1948 to 1955. From the preparatory drawings to the creation, in the utmost secrecy, of the two monumental panels in his studio in Le Fournas, to their final installation in the chapel of the former priory, Picasso's artistic process combined intense research into the subject with speed and virtuosity of execution.

• Film 2 (duration: 10 minutes)​​​​​
  ‘Pablo Picasso's War and Peace: an allegorical and universal work’ 
  Supported by original graphic animation and sound design, 
  this film offers an iconographic interpretation of War and Peace, whose innovative style and monumentality make it a unique work. Borrowed from mythology and the modern world, the symbols chosen by Picasso to represent the horrors of war and the benefits of the return of peace continue to deliver their universal and timeless message with force and inventiveness. 

• Film 3 (duration: 3 minutes)
  ‘The Pablo Picasso National Museum, War and Peace: Contemporary Art Exhibitions’
  For more than twenty years, the Pablo Picasso National Museum, War and Peace, has been organising contemporary art exhibitions by inviting international artists to engage in dialogue with Picasso's War and Peace. The aim is to question and showcase contemporary forms of artistic engagement in all their diversity. 
  This short film shows a selection of exhibitions by established and emerging artists who have taken over the chapel, in line with Picasso's pacifist manifesto.

This new exhibition is produced by the Alpes-Maritimes National Museums of the 20th Century for the Pablo Picasso National Museum, War and Peace, in Vallauris. It is organised in partnership with the Magnelli Museum, a ceramics museum.

This new mediation initiative has received support from Matmut pour les Arts. 

Project team:

Direction des musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes (National Museums of the 20th Century in the Alpes-Maritimes): Anne Dopffer
Project manager and texts: Gaïdig Lemarié
Documentary and iconographic research: Isabelle Le Bastard

Executive production: Narrative / Cécile Cros, Tiphaine Merour and Eolyna Dumont
Director: Christophe Tiphaine
Animation: Lucie Plançon
Sound design: Luc Martinez
Audiovisual consultant: Laurent Oberlé
Set design: Graphӕme
360° photography and 3D scanning: Zooomez SAS

^{_{Film clip 1: Anonymous, Charles Feld in front of the panels of ‘War and Peace’ in the Fournas studio, 1954, Paris, Edition du Cercle d'Art collection. 
Production: Alpes-Maritimes National Museums of the 20th Century © Picasso Estate, 2026}}

^{_{Film recording 2: Pablo Picasso, War (detail), 1952. Production: Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes © Succession Picasso, 2026}}

^{_{Film recording 3: Mark Dion, Tropical Collectors, exhibition from 25 June to 28 November 2022, Musée National Pablo Picasso, La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris. Production: Musées Nationaux du XXe Siècle des Alpes-Maritimes © Succession Picasso, 2026}}