Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’: Cubism as Surrealism: The Watson Gordon Lecture 2008

This lecture was given by Neil Cox of the University of Essex, one of Britain’s leading scholars of Cubism and Surrealism, and a particular authority on Picasso, approaching the Spaniard’s work from intriguing angles. He concentrates on a single work, Picasso’s Head of 1913, and in doing so demonstrates how scrupulous focus can open out challenging perspectives in the work of a great master. Established following the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and named after the painter Sir John Watson Gordon, the Watson Gordon Lectures typify the longstanding and positive collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland: two partners in the Visual Arts Research Institute in Edinburgh.