Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece The Three Dancers is considered one of the most significant paintings in modern art. Now a century after it was created, it will be the focus of its very own exhibition at London’s Tate Modern.
Blending personal tragedy, emotional intensity, and groundbreaking artistic innovation, The Three Dancers was a turning point in Picasso’s career. The painting marked a radical break away from his serene, classical phase, and the beginning of a new period of emotional violence and expressionist distortion.
It’s been in Tate’s collection since 1965 but will now have a whole exhibition built around it which will mark 100 years since it was painted, and which will tell the story of its history through a selection of other key works from across Picasso’s career.
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What does Picasso’s Three Dancers depict?
The remarkable Three Dancers portrays three angular, distorted figures caught in a frenzied dance.
At first, Picasso planned to paint ballet dancers practicing. But while working on it, he discovered his old friend Ramon Pichot had died. This reminded him of a sad and dramatic story from 20 years earlier: Pichot and another friend, Carlos Casagemas, both loved the same woman, Germaine Gargallo. Heartbroken, Casagemas tried to shoot Germaine and then took his own life.
Thinking about these major life events changed how Picasso painted this artwork. The sharp, twisted shapes, bright harsh colours, and thick layers of paint all show strong, raw emotions. Both agony and ecstasy are shown in this one scene.
Picasso kept the painting for forty years, despite what he said were “hundreds” of requests to buy it over the years. He decided in the end to sell it to the Tate, in what was his first ever sale directly to a museum.
With the exhibition opening in September 2025, we still don’t know many further details about what exactly visitors will get to see, which other Picasso works will be shown, or when tickets will go on sale. But the exhibition is likely to be a very popular show in Tate Modern’s 2025 programme, as anything connected to the Spanish artist is usually a very big draw.
But Tate have said that a vibrant programme of live performances will accompany the exhibition, taking direct inspiration from Picasso and allowing The Three Dancers to be brought to life in exciting and innovative new ways.
Picasso: The Three Dancers opens at Tate Modern in London on 17 September 2025 and runs until Spring 2026
— Also at Tate Modern in 2025: exhibitions on performance artist Leigh Bowery and a retrospective of artist Do Ho Suh