In 1956 a 21-year-old Bridgette Bardot visited Picasso at his studio in Vallauris, Cannes, during the Cannes Film Festival. Many photographs of the stunning French actress, who in 1956, was at the height of her ‘beauty’, ‘demand’ and ‘fame’, were taken during her meeting with Picasso in Cannes and are yet more proof of Bardot’s life-long love-affair with the Cote d’Azur.

Similar to Bridgette Bardot, Pablo Picasso also had an extremely publicised magnetism with the Cote d’Azur and the legendary Spanish artist lived thee for many years. During his time living on the Cote d’Azur, Picasso jumped from Antibes in 1946 to Vallauris in 1947 to Cannes in 1955, where he bought the magnificent 19^th century “La Villa California”, to Mougins in 1961, where the painter died in 1973.

Living in the various towns on the Cote d’Azur, Picasso reportedly experienced many love stories – both romantically and artistically and it has been described that it was the Cote d’Azur which exuded the ‘creative intensity’ from within Picasso and ‘pushed his genius and formidable love of life’.

If you too , like Bridget Bardot some 56 years ago, have yearnings to experience a touch of Picasso in the painter’s most inspirational of places, then visiting the ‘Picasso, les chemins du sud’ exhibition in Cannes is most definitely recommendable.

The exhibition will run until September 30, 2012 and is being held in ‘Le Centre d’art La Malmaison’ in Cannes, which is in partnership with the ‘Musee National Picasso Paris.’ Both of these art venues are collaborating to create an exhibition based on the artist’s creations when he was settled on the Cote d’Azur.

The artwork on display at the ‘Picasso, les chemins du sud’ will include many of the painter’s work from between 1950 and 1967, which was created in Cannes, Mougins and Vallauris.

The many sculptures, paintings and photomontages on display at the Le Centre d’art La Malmaison relate to Picasso’s humour, which was shown in his works in the post blue period.

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