Our Editor Visits The Picasso Museum Barcelona ~ A Priceless Collection Of Picasso's Art

Written by Claude Huelle Monday, 07 February 2011 00:08

Barcelona's un-missable Picasso Museum (Museu Picasso) houses an exhaustive collection of the Spanish master's work, though with a concentration on his early works, reflecting the links he had with Barcelona at that time. One of the most popular and most visited museums in Barcelona, the Museum occupies five large town houses or palaces on the Carrer de Montcada. The original palaces date from the 13th-15th centuries, undergoing major refurbishments over time, the most important carried out in the 18th century. The Picasso Museum was first opened in the Gothic Aguilar Palace, the City Council extended the museum by annexing first the adjacent Baró de Castellet Palace, and then the Meca Palace. A new museum extension was opened in 1999 at the casa Mauri, a house partially built over Roman era structures belonging to one of the towns in the outskirts of Barcino colony. Although each palace had been subject to rennovation during their lives, they still retain period features and now provide a common structure surrounding a courtyard with access to the main floor via an outdoor open stairway. Although born in Malaga, Picasso’s family moved to Barcelona in 1895 (after the death of his sister Conchita from diphtheria) when he was 14 years old and he served his artistic apprenticeship in the city. Picasso thrived in Barcelona, later regarding it, in times of sadness or nostalgia, as his true home, and remained there until leaving Spain altogether for the more bohemian art scene in Paris in 1904. Picasso’s deep relationship with Barcelona continued until his death in 1973, his first donation to the city having been “Harlequin” in 1919. The Picasso museum was opened in 1963, thanks to the personal wishes of Picasso and through the offices of his friend and personal secretary, Jaume Sabartés. Originally called “the Sabartés Collection”, because Picasso’s opposition to Franco’s regime made it impossible to use his own name for the new museum, it was renamed after democracy returned to Spain. Although Picasso refused to return to Spain for the opening of the museum, and never visited, he supported it through donations as well as supervising the original plans and designs. The Museum has undergone successive renovations and expansions, and is currently developing new programmes, activities and services intended to turn the museum into a reference source for anyone interested in Picasso and his works, dedicated to spreading knowledge and fostering visitor participation and critical views. The Museum wishes to be a dialogue space, exploring new approaches to Picasso’s work and influence and offering new perspectives on its collection. A drawing by Picasso was donated to the Museum by Catherine Hutin, the daughter of Jacqueline Picasso the orginal sketch for Picasso's "Las Meninas".Visit the museum’s website at: http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso

The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is a key reference for understanding the formative years of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. The original collection was made up of Sabartés’s personal collection and the Picasso works previously held in other Barcelona Art Museums (principally “Harlequin”, the “Plandiura Collection” and the drawings bequeathed by collector Lluís Garriga i Roig). Subsequent additions came from Salvador Dalí (who donated the illustrated book “Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide” containing 30 Picasso etchings from 1931) and Picasso’s own donations, starting with “Blue Portrait of Sabartés” (1901) and the 58 canvases making up the “Meninas” series (1957) in homage to his dead friend, Jaume Sabartés and followed by the entire large collection (921 works, made up of paintings and drawings from his youth) that his family held in Barcelona. Additional donations and bequests created the current collection, which, through its more than 3,800 works, reveals the genius of the young artist. Although the artist only lived in Barcelona on a permanent basis from 1895-1904 (until he was 23), these were crucial years and his early schoolboy doodles and startlingly precocious early "academic" work form the starting point of the museum's collection. It also has some very beautiful Blue Period paintings from the end of the same period. The other strengths are high Cubist works of 1917 (when Picasso briefly returned to Barcelona) and the 1950s series done in response to Velázquez's bizarre group portrait “Las Meninas” (now housed in the Prado, Madrid). Highlights of the collection include two of his first major works, “The First Communion” (1896), and “Science and Charity” (1897), and a fascinating representative selection of Picasso's works from 1917, when he met his first wife, the ballerina Olga Kokhlova and journeyed to Rome.

The Picasso Museum's collection shows a clear transition from Cubism to Picasso's return to classicism after his journey to Italy and in terms of his famous Blue Period, there is no other collection in the world that can compare. Following recent renovations, there are now nine halls for temporary exhibitions. The focus of the temporary shows is on avant-garde art of the first half of the 20th century, looking at movements or significant individuals, but with an obvious focus on Picasso. Previous exhibitions have explored Picasso’s relationship with other artists, such as Degas and Rusiñol. Until 20 February 2011, visitors can enjoy a detailed exhibition of Picasso’s “Science and Charity”. The exhibition provides fascinating detail behind the artist’s most famous work of social realism, created at his father’s urging as his entry to the National Exhibition. Accompanying booklets explain the work in context and through the use of advanced technologies, lay bare the secrets of the technical process revealing how the picture was created. Future exhibitions planned during 2011 include "Comics on the Frontline" (from 18 March) which focuses on Picasso’s etchings from the “The Dream and Lie of Franco” series from 1937, conceptual and formal precursors to Guernica which are symbols of the committed political position the artist assumed during the Spanish Civil War; and “Devouring Paris. Picasso 1900-1907” (from 1 July) coproduced by the Picasso Museum with the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam, will present Picasso’s artistic evolution from his arrival in 1900 to Paris, where he discovered a thriving international art community, to 1907, when he assumed the role of leading the artistic vanguard in the French capital.