The 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, celebrated on April 8, coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Museu Picasso. the only museum that the artist introduced in his life. Despite his firm rejection of the Franco dictatorship, Picasso, thanks to the determination of his personal secretary, allowed its opening on Montcada Street on March 9, 1963. Jaume Sabarteswith the support of his wife, Jacqueline, the Barcelona City Council, and the Gaspar and Gili families. The decisive impulse came in 1970, when a Malaga man donated a thousand artifacts to the museum that remained in the Paseo de Gràcia home of his sister, Lola, who died in 1958. “We are not the richest Picasso Museum, but we have one of the most visited and most important collections”, remembers its director, Emmanuel Guigon.
Picasso and the Barcelonans
The artist arrived in the Catalan capital at the age of 13 and spent nine years there before moving to Paris. He returned several times but always had a special respect for his adopted city. Picasso has historically struggled to connect with locals, but that trend has changed: They visited the museum in February. 700,000 people, an absolute record in 60 years and 87% more than in 2022; 34% were nationals and 27% were from Barcelona, something unprecedented. “Although not a well-known surname, the exhibition dedicated to Daniel-Henry Kahweiler, Picasso’s salesman, was a complete success,” says Guigon, who is nearing the publication of a Cartography to examine Picasso’s relationship with Barcelona. and the star show ‘Miró-Picasso’ in October.
art monster
Was the Malaga man a violent and misogynist being forgiven for being a great artist? The post-Me Too hurricane fueled the debate around the man from Malaga. The Malaga man has been the target of fierce criticism from feminists who accused him of having abusive relationships with the women who passed through his life and who could not tear themselves away from his work, because they are an essential part of him. If sex, power, and attractiveness are key themes in your art, how can you separate the work and the artist?
debatable
With this reinterpretation, Museu Picasso received its first shock two years ago when Maria Llopis of Valencia and a group of students carried out a silent denunciation action in the museum, wearing t-shirts with slogans such as ‘Picasso Bluebeard’ or ‘Picasso’. Shadow of Dora Maar’. A year later, the museum supported a gender perspective of the artist’s life and work at the hands of the UAB, with a symposium and two performances that invited reflection on the creator’s controversial relationship with women. As Lucien Febvre, founder of the Annales School, said, History is the daughter of its time and its moment. We must have a contemporary look. The museum has many missions, including sharing. a feeling and some doubts. The museum is not an ideological platform, but it is impossible not to participate in current discussions. welcome to itGuigon says.
From Sophie Calle to Hannah Gadsby
Coincidentally or not, many artists are part of the Museu Picasso program in such an important year: Carmen Calvo and the mighty Hélène Delprat will take part in exhibitions and the artist Orlan and Pilar Aymerich is invited to intervene in the collection. Will be in Paris in September sophie street who will play in an example. Relationship with Luxembourg gertrude stein and in the Musée de Montmartre, with his first emotional partner, Fernando Oliver. Olivier and Françoise Gilot it is also the focal point of the exhibition at the Künstmuseum in Münster. Although the most talked about event is the one that will culminate in June at the Brooklyn Museum, which he curated. Hannah Gadsby. ‘Nanette’, fading monologue It was very difficult for Picasso, whom Gadsby accuses of being on Netflix, where the Australian comedian has traveled the world. sick of misogyny. “Picasso, I hate him, but you can’t hate him if you think about cubism,” he said on the show. If it was necessary to learn to separate man from his art, thought Gadsby, “then What happens if you remove the name from the pictures, how much does it sell for?
“We pioneered the discussion”
Although Guigon admits he hasn’t seen Gadsby’s monologue on Netflix, he doesn’t shy away from the discussion. “We created a PhD last year, and this PhD is dedicated to feminism and Picasso. We have been a pioneer in this regard among Picasso museums. To be serious, you need to search, compare and verify sources. Picasso was a man of the 19th century, a temptress who lived to create. He is the most prolific painter in the world. And we should not forget that he is extremely generous,” he notes. “All the women Picasso lived with, married or not, were weapons to be embraced. They were all very powerful. Of course you have to criticize, but you have to deserve that criticism. Picasso was a complex being”.