this Year picasso50th anniversary of the death of the painter, which started this Monday and will be celebrated throughout 2023, There will be 42 exhibitions and various events that examine the painter figure in depth. and the revolutionary character of his work, without shying away from his controversial relationship with women.
France and Spain put all the meat on the grill for this program that officially started. Anything left to say about Picasso? “Of course”, He drew attention to the head of the commission, Carlos Alberdi, who presided over the events organized by Spain and France.
The rain of exhibitions to be held in many countries in the coming months is proof of this. in allthere will be fifty exhibitions around the world -mostly in Spain (16), France (12) and the United States (7)- and the aim is to make his figures, if possible, even better known, especially to new generations.
“If there is an artist who defined the 20th century with all his cruelty, violence, passion, excesses and contradictions, it is undoubtedly Picasso”, Culture Minister Miquel Iceta said today at the anniversary presentation ceremony in front of Guernica, together with his French counterpart, Rima Abdul Malak.
Women and Picasso
The program does not shy away from the dark areas of the painter’s life, for example, his controversial relationship with women. In recent yearsThe new feminist wave that emerged after the ‘Me Too’ movement also spread to the art world, and Picasso did not come out of it unscathed.although the subject is not new and there is a lot of literature on it.
“Is it possible to separate life from an artist’s work? I don’t think so. But will the reprehensible elements of life prevent us from valuing the work? Both”, hIceta spoke out against Guernica today.
The French Minister of Culture, who declared herself a feminist, serious and careful discussion. “We can’t summarize his work into his relationship with women, it has many facets.”
She remembered that her figure continued to create attraction, not just because of her artistic power. “also for his political power”. “Guernica” embodies the democratic value of art and “unites us” with what happened at the war in Ukraine, he said.
Currently, only one of the exhibits in the program will be designed with a clear gender focus. It doesn’t have a title yet.It will be at the Brooklyn Museum (June 2023) curated by the witty Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, whose project “Nannette” shook the painter and other great artists.
Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, grandson of the artistbelieves the discussion is “important” as long as it is conducted in earnest. “The women who lived with Picasso were not arrested or imprisoned (…). People live life the way they want (…). The discussion needs to be serious to find out,” she said.
A thousand faces of Picasso
Besides gender, in the Year of Picasso, sculpture (Fundación Mapfre) by El Greco (Museo del Prado) or Goya (Musée Goya); Cubist scene (Met), landscape (Cincinati Museum), or teen scene (Solomon Guggenheim).
The grandson of the artist, who established a foundation with the legacy of his grandfather, lent many works for the exhibitions to be held.r. Its role, along with the role of the National Picasso Museum in Paris, which will lend more than 600 works, has been key to realizing the ambitious program presented today.
also moneySpain contributes 6 million euros for the centenary – 3 million more from the government and another 3 million euros that Telefónica contributes as a sponsor.. France did not want to reveal its contribution to the project.
One of the most important and ambitious exhibitions that will come to light in the coming months. Pompidou Museum, It will bring together more than 2,000 drawings and engravings from Pablo Picasso’s early works to his last years.
in Spain, Reina Sofia Museum, The custodian of his masterpiece, El Guernica, focuses on 1906, the year of his first attempts at cubism, with a major exhibition: “The Great Transformation.”
Another big project is National Picasso Museum in Paris, Designed by British designer Paul Smith, the exhibition will propose a new reading of his collection with contemporary artists.
The Reina Sofia Museum will host a congress on the figure of Picasso later this year, and to complement it, In the autumn of 2023, a major symposium and the opening of the Center for Picasso Studies at the National Picasso Museum in the French capital will be held in Paris.