Picasso in Palestine was a collaboration between the International Art Academy Palestine and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. As an artistic conception of artistic director Khaled Hourani, for the very first time an original painting by Pablo Picasso was exhibited in Ramallah, in the West Bank. The work Buste de Femme (1943) is one of the most iconic works from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and has been exhibited throughout the world in the past 50 years. On the basis of a loan request made to the museum by the International Art Academy Palestine (IAAP) in July 2009 and following extensive research, the work travelled to Ramallah in June 2011. It was exhibited in a specially constructed room inside the IAAP from 24th June to 20th July 2011.
On 25th and 26th June, the IAAP hosted the Picasso Talks, a special programme that was supported by Outset and in which international speakers were invited to respond to the artistic, political and social implications surrounding the Picasso exhibition and the process of taking it to Ramallah.
