Members lectures | On Picasso, Cubism and ceramics
7 Nov 2026
10:30am to 11:30am, 12:30pm to 1:30pm and 2pm to 3pm
Members $19 per lecture or $45 for all three
Pablo Picasso, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe d’après Manet, 1960, oil on canvas, Musée national Picasso-Paris © Succession Picasso/Copyright Agency, 2026. Image credit: © GrandPalaisRmn (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Mathieu Rabeau.
Event detail
Dive deeper into the works on display in Picasso: Designed by Paul Smith with this trio of Members-only lectures by the Gallery’s Senior Curator, International Art, Dr Sophie Matthiesson, ceramic expert Moyra Elliot and art historian Linda Yang. Explore Picasso’s early years developing Cubism, learn about Picasso’s love of ceramics and working with clay, and gain new perspectives on the context of Picasso's painting Le Deujeuner Sur l'herbe d’après Manet (Luncheon on the grass after Manet).
Tickets are sold separately for each lecture, so choose your favourite or click the link below to purchase a bundle ticket for all three.
These lectures are open to Members only. Become a Gallery Member today to enjoy this event and many more benefits.
Lecture details
Dr Sophie Matthiesson, the Gallery’s coordinating curator of Picasso: Designed by Paul Smith, explores Picasso’s early years as an artist. Learn about his arrival in Paris, the artists and ideas that influenced him, and how he developed Cubism with his friend Georges Braque. Sophie will also look at works in the first rooms of the exhibition, showing how Cubist ideas moved from paintings and collages into three-dimensional works.
Picasso is best known as a painter, but he was also passionate about ceramics. In this lecture, ceramics expert Moyra Elliot explores how Picasso’s work with clay developed over time and how it connects with the long history of ceramic art. Take a closer look at some of his richly decorated pieces and the themes that appear throughout them, including birds, mythology and the human figure.
Art historian Linda Yang explores how the famous composition of the luncheon on the grass has been reimagined by artists over hundreds of years. Beginning with Titian and moving through Manet, Picasso and Jacqueline Fahey, Linda will show how artists have returned to the same image and changed it to reflect new ideas, times and perspectives. The lecture looks at how repeating and reworking existing artworks can lead to something new.
About the exhibition
Picasso: Designed by Paul Smith
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. Smith’s experiments with light, colour, shape, feeling and his Signature Stripe reimagine how we experience the artworks.
This exhibition is organised by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso–Paris.
About the lecturers
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.
Moyra Elliot
Moyra Elliot has decades of experience in the field of ceramics. She has been a maker, lecturer, curator, writer, editor and juror for events – regional, national and international, most recently the Chinese International Ceramics Biennale in 2023 and the NZ National in 2025. She was director of the Fletcher Challenge Awards, curator at the Dowse Art Museum and received a Fulbright Award to study US ceramic education. Moyra was inaugural Curator for the Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale encompassing works by 43 artists from 27 countries. She is co-author of Cone Ten Down, a history of New Zealand studio ceramics, and has written more than 40 essays for catalogues, books and journals.
Linda Yang
Linda Yang (BFA/BA Hons, MA) is an art historian and educator. She has taught a range of art history and photography classes to secondary and tertiary students as well as adults at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, New Zealand School of Education, Browne School of Art and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Linda was a long-time assistant of Marti Friedlander (1928–2016), one of New Zealand’s most famous and celebrated photographers. She is the archivist for the Marti Friedlander Archive, which is held by the Gallery’s E H McCormick Research Library. Linda prides herself on creating a safe environment where ideas can be exchanged and explored freely in discussion.
