We didn't want just another Picasso exhibition. We wanted something that would link the work to a particular context.

Picasso never copied African art, which is why this show does not match a specific African work with a Picasso. He took its point of view to express his own art. In his drawings we can see three sketched antelopes which come very close to the Bambara sculptures of antelopes. But then he creates a metamorphosis in which he creates something phenomenal and new.

This is a first. Nowhere else in the world has there been an exhibition showing the relation between Picasso's work and African art.

Speed is something that you cannot coach. They all just work well together.

He not only saw pictures of African art in books; he was exposed to African art from many of the former French colonies. He learnt from Africa how to turn convex into concave, how to turn chubby cheeks into hollow cheeks.

Any time your work can be criticized by the public you get a little nervous.