Picasso, painter and poet

"For example, he likes to pile on the imagery in his poems and use certain recurring words, which to me resemble the color palettes of his paintings," Yu says.

He also says that just as Picasso's paintings often appeared as variations on a similar theme, his poems often centered around a single subject seen from a different perspective, or language.

Eugenio Carmona, a professor of art history at the University of Malaga, compares Picasso's poetry to a running river, in which his memories flow.

Picasso wrote down what came into his mind, recording his childhood memories and exploring his own origins, and the unstable, chaotic and ever-flowing nature of memories shaped the style of his poetry, Carmona says.

Chinese poet and literary critic Xi Chuan applauds Picasso's unceasing appetite for creativity: "Usually artists at the age of 54 can fall into a state of boredom, but Picasso retained his passion for art and an inexhaustible strength for creation... In Picasso's poetry, you sense a kind of nascent presence, like something that has just been born and is continuing to grow."

Many of his poems were penned using Chinese ink brushes, as is shown by photos at the exhibition, which, according to Lebrero Stals, is a result of Picasso's love for Chinese calligraphy.