An ambitious claim

The article sets out the origins and objectives of the project from the point of view of the Van Abbemuseum. It describes an institution dedicated to re-examining its modernist archive in the light of 21st century globalisation and how this project not only shifts possibilities within Palestine but alters the meaning and significance of the Picasso painting Buste de Femme when returned to Eindhoven. Having been painted in 1943 under one occupation, it’s brief visit to another occupation re-politicises its genesis while its relative anonymity in a provincial Dutch collection emphasises the differentials in cultural access between the Netherlands and Palestine.