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The last time there was a significant exhibition of Picasso's work at a major UK gallery, something akin to Picassomania ensued.

Nearly fifty years ago, at what was then Tate Britain, orderly queues of people snaked their way around London's Millbank. Almost 500,000 people went to look at work by the most significant artist of the 20th century, breaking records for a single exhibition.

The only exhibition that has come close in recent years is Monet at the Royal Academy in 1999 which saw 300,000 people walk through its Salon rooms. The first all-night showings were held to cater for demand.

In 1960, it would have been unthinkable for a Picasso exhibition to have taken place in the hallowed space reserved for the Old Masters. The Spanish artist was, after all, an arch-Modernist and iconoclast.

But there he is at the with 60 of his seminal works on show. But instead of pitting him head-to-head with his predecessors, he is on his own in the basement of the Sainsbury Wing. And the exhibition is hung thematically rather than chronologically, which slightly misses the point of tracking his development as a painter.

Will any of this matter to people who have never seen a Picasso painting but would like to find out more? I sometimes think criticism from art historians in the papers and galleries puts people off going to exhibitions and making up their own minds, as they did in such impressive numbers half a century ago.