Fifty years after the death of the painter on April 8, 1973, the Picasso Museum in the city of Antibes in southeastern France launched, on Saturday, special events for this anniversary, by opening an exhibition centered on the last years of his life.

The exhibition "Picasso 1969-1972", which is co-organized by the Musée National Picasso in Paris, until July 2, in Antibes, presents 37 paintings and four paper works carried out by the artist during those years in Mougins near Antibes, where he lived from 1961 until his death.

These large-scale works, including, for example, "Bust of a Man in a Hat", "The Flute Player and the Nude Woman" and "The Torero", were loaned by the Picasso Museums in Paris and Malaga, private galleries and the artist's family.

It testifies to the period in which Picasso "summed up his entire life as an artist and as a human being in a creative flow", according to Jean-Louis Andral, curator of the exhibition entitled "The End of the Beginning", in statements made in the event booklet.

"When Picasso was shown for the last time in Avignon in 1970 and then in 1973, some critics considered that he had lost his potential and that this was the beginning of the end," Andral, who is also director of the Picasso Museum in Antibes, told AFP.

He added, "I wanted to reverse the formula by adopting the opposite formula, as that was a moment that opened new horizons for painting and seduced painters like (Jean Michel) Basquia."

Picasso never stopped creating until his last working session on November 12, 1972, a few weeks before his death at the age of 91.

Located in the Palais Grimaldi facing the sea, the Picasso Museum in Antibes permanently displays 23 paintings and 44 drawings by Picasso that the artist left in the deposit in 1946 after a two-month stay during which he was able to use part of the museum as his professional.

The collection has been enriched over the years by donations, notably by ceramics made in the post-World War II years in the neighboring town of Vallauris.

From Antibes to Malaga, the birthplace of the painter, passing through Paris, on the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso's death, many events are held to re-acquaint the public with his work.

These activities also allow, in particular, to learn about the nature of his relations with women, to the contemporary audience at the time of the "Me Too" movement, through an exhibition on "Picasso and Feminism" at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in June.