Picasso and the "Bad Painting"
Picasso’s later paintings met with a lukewarm reception when they were exhibited in Avignon in 1970 and 1973. However, it was these paintings that went on to become models for a new generation of painters ten years later. To mark the occasion, the Royal Academy of London held the exhibition A New Spirit in Painting in 1981. Central to the show were five of Picasso’s later works. Three years later, the Guggenheim in New York organised an exhibition dedicated to the Spanish artist’s final years, which was received positively by American artists – pop artists, Johns, Warhol, street artists, Basquiat, Haring and others. These paintings, which resurrected figurative art, subjective expressionism and narrative art, resonated strongly with bad painters, new fauves and trans-avant-gardists.