Alfred H. Barr Jr.'s letter to Pablo Picasso, dated 10 March 1955

Alfred H. Barr Jr., director of the Collections Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, writes to Pablo Picasso to confirm that he is putting together a major exhibition at the museum (the museum’s current director, René d'Harnoncourt, had already discussed it with the artist) and he suggests it takes place in 1956–1957. He informs him that he would like to spotlight works from the last twenty years, taking Guernica as the centerpiece but without disregarding other major works from previous epochs so as to reflect the variety of his work. He also informs him of the desire of museums in Chicago and Philadelphia to host the exhibition when it finishes and New York, and of his intention to work on a new edition of his book Picasso, Fifty Years of His Art (1947), featuring texts on the last ten years of his oeuvre. He emphasises how much he will enjoy working with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, whom Picasso had entrusted with working on the organisation of the exhibition with the museum, and he expresses his wish to visit the artist if he manages to travel to Europe the following summer.