![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15_Pablo-Picasso-The-Sailor-1938.jpg\")
\u201cThe Sailor,\u201d 1938, by Pablo Picasso Credit: \u00a9 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso\/Artists Rights Society<\/p>\nThough he never put paintbrush to canvas, charcoal to paper, or fingers to plaster himself, Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007) made a significant impact and contribution to post-modern European avant-garde art.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sailor,\u201d 1938, by Pablo Picasso Credit: \u00a9 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso\/Artists Rights Society<\/p>\n
As an art dealer, collector, gallery owner, and friend to many well-known creative names in Paris after World War II, Berggruen was able to shape and guide both acceptance and knowledge of works by painters Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse. He also dealt with and collected sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and Henrie Laurens and drawings by Paul C\u00e8zanne and Georges Braque.<\/p>\n
He later created his own Museum Berggruen to showcase these works in Germany\u2019s Berlin-Charlottenburg area. And it was sold to the German government after his death.<\/p>\n
Now, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will present Picasso-Klee-Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen<\/strong>on display from May 20-September 13.<\/p>\n Of the 121 total objects on display, 89 are from the Berggruen, and the rest complementary additions from the MFAH permanent collections and a loan, with the majority being works on paper and paintings. It is co-curated by the MFAH\u2019s Ann Dumas (Consulting Curator of European Art), and Dena Woodall (Curator of Prints and Drawings).<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he opened his gallery after the second World War, he formed friendships with major artists. And when he became more successful, he could do substantial exhibitions. He wasn\u2019t the only dealer in Paris, but certainly a major one,\u201d Dumas says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere weren\u2019t as many galleries active due to the war, and he capitalized on that,\u201d Woodall adds. \u201cHe was also a journalist who wrote about at and published books on artists. He loved to communicate with artists and had such a great eye to spot really fine works.\u201d As a young man during the onset of Naziism, Berggruen also lived and worked in the United States in the San Francisco area.<\/p>\n The MFAH also has something of a personal connection here as MFAH Director and CEO Gary Tinterow was friends with Berggruen, having first met him in in 1979 when Tinterow was a graduate student preparing a Picasso exhibit. They later connected when both were in New York (Tinterow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). He later also organized the first exhibition of Berggruen\u2019s collection in Geneva in 1988.<\/p>\n Woodall notes that Berggruen in particular loved and appreciated Paul Klee\u2019s work. And after purchasing his first watercolor by the artist, called it his \u201ctalisman\u201d and would often travel with it in his luggage\u2014probably to the horror of any art dealer or collector today. That specific painting now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n As to why Berggruen gravitated especially to Picasso and Klee, despite their on-the-surface divergence in styles, Woodall says they sort of balanced each other out.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul Klee was much more of an intellectual, a teacher. Picasso as more robust in a lot of ways. But you\u2019ll see in the exhibition sometimes the sort of influences that went back between them and Matisse. They very much admired each other during this critical phase.\u201d<\/p>\n Dumas says Berggruen likened Picasso\u2019s work to a \u201csymphony\u201d and Klee\u2019s to \u201cchamber music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDena and I were just talking today that it never ceases to surprise us that [Picasso\u2019s] incredible range of styles and techniques that he experimented with throughout his long career,\u201d she says. In the exhibit\u2019s press release Dumas also adds that it\u2019s a chance for museumgoers to see \u201cless familiar works.\u201d Meaning that many here have either not traveled (or traveled widely) or are not often included in major retrospectives of the participating artists.<\/p>\n Woodall even says this exhibit\u2014with an entire room dedicated to Klee\u2014could be the be the most of his work ever seen in one place in Texas ever.<\/p>\n The exhibit is laid out in additional thematic options divided into general introductions, human face, human figure, still lives, and one on the Berggruen Gallery itself. The last includes pictures of its namesake, as well as catalogs that he produced.<\/p>\n Normally, one MFAH curator tends to ride herd over a single exhibition. But because of the combination of paintings and drawing, Picasso-Klee-Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen marks the first time that Dumas and Woodall have worked closely together on the same exhibit. Both say they\u2019ve enjoyed it and already have plans to collaborate on future exhibits in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be a duo again!\u201d Dumas laughs.<\/p>\n Woodall adds \u201cWe now today think of these artists are modern masters that everyone knows. But there was a time when they were first starting and being very much changemakers of their own time with a lot of technological, political, and social changes happening. They are coming with a fresh way of looking at the world, and that really comes across in this exhibition. And Berggruen was there to capture it all!\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, we ask that if Gary Tinterow came knocking on their collective door and said they\u2019ve done such a great job, that each curator can take one work home with them, what would they choose and why?<\/p>\n For Woodall, it would be Klee\u2019s Landscape in Blue, a 1907 small watercolor that she says also shows the artist as a teacher and lover of line and color. Especially in the color variation of blue.<\/p>\n Dumas would grab Picasso\u2019s Still Life on the Piano (CORT) from 1911. It\u2019s a much larger work that marks a high point of Analytical Cubism, full of discreet references to musical instruments. The initials \u201cCORT\u201d are also in bold, black letters. Scholars have thought it refers to a famous French pianist at the time, Alfred Cortot, who Picasso befriended.<\/p>\n Woodall then makes a wry but accurate observation. \u201cIt would be much harder for Ann to carry that one out of the building!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/17_Paul-Klee-Blue-Mountain-1919.jpg\")
\u201cBlue Mountain,\u201d 1919, by Paul Klee Credit: MFAH<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05_Paul-Cezanne-Portrait-of-Madam-Cezanne-c.-1885.jpg\")
\u201cPortrait of Madam C\u00e8zanne,\u201d c. 1885, by Paul C\u00e8zanne. Credit: Private Collection\/MFAH<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/10_Henri-Matisse-Vegetal-Elements-1947.jpg\")
\u201cVegetal Elements,\u201d 1947, by Henri Matisse Credit: MFAH<\/p>\n