Art historian Albert Velasco brought to light Five attributed works Picasso’s and this belonged to caricaturist, caricaturist and gallery owner Josep Costa Ferrer ‘Picarol’ (Ibiza, 1876 – Palma, 1971), personal friend of the Malaga artist. In addition, the Catalan researcher gained access to 160 boxes of documents and photographs belonging to the owner of the Costa Galleries and the founder of Cala d’Or, which he assures is “undoubtedly the most important private archive for us”. “I know the art market in the 20th century.”
Works introduced by Velasco At the recent Mercat de l’Art, Collections and Museums Conference in Sitges These are portraits on paper of a woman, dated 1898, dating from the artist’s Catalan period, featuring Cova Artística members and Els Quatre Gats regulars ‘Picarol’, Lluís Bagaria and Joan Vidal Ventosa. The fifth work is an oil painting depicting a bullfight.
Velasco speculates that all the drawings were made on the same type of lined paper and had holes from the tacks that held them up in the Cova dels Artistes. For verify that these portraits are by the same author and come from the same contextThe historian presents a photograph in which ‘Picarol’ can be seen together with Bagaria, Martínez Padilla and Ventosa in the Cova workshop, the walls of which are covered with drawings hung with thumbtacks.
“I think he [’Picarol’] He kept these drawings from the moment they dismantled the Cova Artística, because we know they were kicked out of their building in Barcelona for not paying the rent. They were young, they weren’t making a proper living, and I think ‘Picarol’ kept these drawings throughout his life and kept them among his personal belongings,” says Velasco. The cartoonist’s grandchildren have evidence of these works and that they are not ‘lost’ among other documents.
Art History expert says neither the ‘Picarol’ archive nor these Picassos are currently in Mallorca, but they are“It’s one of the good things when it comes to proving their provenance and provenance,” he said, stating that he could not provide further information about who these works currently belong to and the location of the archive, but clarified that the Picassos remain in the possession of the Costa family. originality”. Velasco had accessed this material through one of his students at the University of Lleida. Adrià Codina.
The researcher recalls that Costa Ferrer was a person directly related to Picasso and that the artist was the first to exhibit his work at the Costa Galleries in Mallorca. “In 1929 he exhibited two of his paintings and then in 1948 he organized an exhibition for himself alone of 20 etchings and three original Picassos. I have my suspicions that there may be one of these original Picassos, I have no evidence. Those currently on display at the Costa Galleries are what I have found was between.
In addition to these studies, it is very important for Velasco that a researcher can access Costa’s archive for the first time. “Is an incomprehensible set of documents “When it becomes available to all researchers, it will make a very important contribution to the history of art and gallerism in Palma and Catalonia, as well as to the art trade in the Spanish State,” he says.