Join us for an Audio Described Tour of Picasso: Designed by Paul Smith for Blind and Low Vision visitors.

The tour will be led by Senior Curator, International Art, Dr Sophie Matthiesson, and audio described by Nicola Owen of Audio Described Aotearoa.

This is Picasso like you’ve never seen him before. Encounter the Blue and Rose periods, Cubism, portraits and more in the first solo exhibition of Picasso’s work in Aotearoa New Zealand in more than 30 years.

Bringing together outstanding works from the Musée national Picasso–Paris in a special collaboration with legendary British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, the exhibition unfolds across atmospheric rooms that draw on the colours, shapes, patterns and textures of Picasso's artworks. Sir Paul’s experiments with light, colour, shape, feeling and his Signature Stripe reimagine how we experience the artworks.

Bookings for the Audio Described Tour are essential and limited to 13 people. If attending with a sighted companion, please book a ticket for them as well.

Please note there is capacity for one sighted companion per purchase.

In addition to booked attendees, 2 sighted companion volunteers, provided courtesy of Blind Low Vision NZ, will be available to support Blind and Low Vision visitors throughout the tour.

 

What to expect

Please meet in the main foyer between 10:15am and 10:30am, where you will receive your headset before the tour begins.

At 10:30am, the group will take a moment for introductions.

The group will then make its way to Level 1, where the tour will begin.

The tour will conclude at 12pm, when headsets will be returned.

 

Pricing

• Adults (New Zealanders): $30 

• Adults (International tourists): $40 

• Members: Free  

• Seniors and Community Card holders: $27 

• Students (with student ID): $21 

• Sighted companion: Free

Book now

 

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Dr Sophie Matthiesson

Dr Sophie Matthiesson is Senior Curator, International Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has curated Manpower: Myths of Masculinity (2021) and Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World (2022 and MONA, Tasmania, 2023), both of which have associated publications. More recently she has co-curated Threads of Time: Travel, Trade and Textiles (2023–26), Gothic Returns: Fuseli to Fomison (2023–25) and The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity (2024).

She was previously curator of international art at the National Gallery of Victoria (2006–19) where she led the 2012 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Monet’s Garden. Her doctoral research was on artists in prison in the French Revolution and received the Prix Marianne Roland Michel award from the Institut de France.