Jed Perl reviews the exhibition Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris-Vallauris, 1943-1953 at Gagosian Gallery, New York, on view through June 30, 2012.

Perl writes: "The fascination here is not so much in the great works this exhibition contains – although there are a few – but in the sense of a visionary struggling to move forward, searching in past triumphs for the catalyst to future discoveries… there is no modern artist who has struggled more mightily than Picasso to reconcile the rival claims of sentiment and design."