Spend the year with Pablo Picasso
The 50th anniversary of the artist’s death has inspired dozens of exhibitions in Spain, France and the US.
The greatest painters are lucky to muster a single institution dedicated to their art. But such was his prodigious output, popularity and, perhaps, the provocative nature of his work, that there are now seven major Pablo Picasso museums in four countries. The most important are housed in Paris, Antibes and Barcelona, the places most central to his life and work. But there are other significant collections in Madrid, Lucerne, Cologne and also in Malaga, where he was born on October 25, 1881. This year, the 50th anniversary of his death, these permanent collections will be supplemented by some 50 celebratory exhibitions, including 16 in Spain, 12 in France and seven in the US.
PARIS
Musee Picasso
With about 5000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints and engravings, as well as the artist’s notebooks, Musee Picasso in the French capital is the largest collection of his work and represents the many phases of his development as an artist. It also offers the most impressive setting, in Hotel Sale, one of the grandest Parisian 17th-century townhouses. To mark the anniversary, the museum has commissioned a radical new presentation of its key masterpieces by British designer Paul Smith. Interwoven with work by contemporary artists such as Mickalene Thomas and Cheri Samba, the paintings are hung against strong colours and dramatic patterns (until August 6).
Also in Paris:Centre Pompidou is planning an exhibition including more than 2000 of Picasso’s drawings; from October 18-January 22, 2024.
ANTIBES
Musee Picasso
Set in Chateau Grimaldi, almost directly on the Mediterranean Sea, Musee Picasso Antibes is surely the most picturesque of the Picasso museums. He used the medieval chateau as a studio in 1946 and, for a few idyllic weeks, he and his lover Francoise Gilot spent long days on the beaches, working mainly in the evenings. In a bout of frenzied creativity, Picasso produced a new work almost every night – 23 paintings and 44 drawings in all – which represent some of his most hedonistic and untroubled work. He donated all the paintings he’d done here to the chateau, on condition they remained on display. To get a sense of the vigour of his work in this period, look out for Joie de Vivre, which perhaps best captures the mood, as a naked model dances to pan pipes played by a faun while a boat bobs on the horizon. The keynote exhibition this year focuses on his late work, however: Picasso 1969-72: The End of the Beginning (to July 2).
BARCELONA
Museu Picasso
Picasso lived in Barcelona from the age of 14 to 24 and, although he moved to Paris in 1904, the Catalan capital was always close to his heart. The main focus of Museu Picasso, founded on a donation of 574 works by his secretary Jaume Sabartes, is on his early paintings. In 1970, Picasso left further bequests to the museum, and the total count is now more than 3000. Highlights include his first major paintings, The First Communion (1896) and Science and Charity (1897). This year’s exhibition Miro-Picasso, is being held in conjunction with Fundacio Joan Miro (October 19-February 25, 2024).
MADRID
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Focusing on modern and contemporary Spanish art, this Madrid landmark is home to Picasso’s biggest and most famous painting, Guernica, along with dozens of studies and drawings. Guernica, which pays homage to the victims of the bombing of the Basque town in 1937, is a totemic reminder of Spain’s suffering during the civil war and the Franco regime. This year’s anniversary exhibition supplements the Guernica collection and focuses on a year of his life – Picasso 1906: The Great Transformation (November 14-March 4, 2024).
Also in Madrid: There are major exhibitions at the city’s two most important museums. “Picasso – El Greco” at the Prado surveys the influence of an old master on a modernist (June 13-September 17) and “Picasso. The Sacred and the Profane” at Museo Thyssen focuses on his classical works and those with a religious theme (September 4-January 14, 2024).
MALAGA
Museo Picasso
The main collection of works in Picasso’s birthplace city is at Museo Picasso Malaga, which opened in 2003 in the Buenavista Palace. The core of the collection is made up of 233 works donated by Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (his daughter-in-law and grandson) and there are presently 162 works on loan to the museum. Best represented are paintings from his Cubist phase, the Classical paintings of the 1920s, and some of his last paintings from the early 1970s. Highlights include a remarkable portrait of his younger sister, Lola, made in 1894 when he was just 13. An exhibition of his sculpture “Picasso: Matter and Body” runs for a month (August 8-September 10) and then transfers to the Guggenheim Bilbao (September 23-January 14, 2024).
LUCERNE
Swiss art dealer Siegfried Rosengart (1894-1985) was a friend of many leading 20th-century artists, including Matisse, Klee and Picasso. He and his daughter Angela amassed the Rosengart collection, which they donated to their hometown of Lucerne. Included are 32 paintings of the highest quality and 100 drawings, watercolours and graphic and sculptural works by Picasso, including five portraits of Angela, who is now in her 90s. The museum is housed in a former bank building, and works from all periods of Picasso’s life are represented, with the later paintings a particular strength. Aside from the studies of Angela, among the highlights are the many portraits of Picasso’s wife, Jacqueline Roque; Dejeuner sur L’herbe (after Manet), Portrait of a Painter (after El Greco); and the Man with Pipe series from the late 1960s.
COLOGNE
This repository charts many key movements of the 20th century, from the Russian avant-garde to pop art. But pride of place goes to a huge holding of some 864 works by Picasso, which is the third-largest collection of his works after the Picasso museums in Paris and Barcelona. All the key phases of his paintings are represented, and there’s a sizeable collection of drawings and graphics, ceramics and sculptures, including the plaster Woman with Pram (1950) and the monumental head of his lover of the 1930s and ’40s, Dora Maar. Other key works include Harlequin (1923) and Woman with Artichoke (1941). Museum Ludwig is further supporting the Picasso anniversary year by making some of its collection available on loan and presenting Suite 156, a dedication to Picasso’s series of engravings in 1968, supplemented by historical documents. Suite 156 (October 28-February 4, 2024).
NEW YORK
Take your pick from three major exhibitions in the Big Apple. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is drilling deep and concentrating on the artist’s output during just three months in 1921 with Picasso in Fontainebleau (October 1-February 2, 2024). The Guggenheim focuses on his early career in its Young Picasso in Paris show (May 12-August 7), while the Brooklyn Museum will examine some of the difficult questions around his depiction of women in its exhibition titled It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby. The Australian comedian has assisted with the curation of the showing, which is described as reckoning with “complex questions around misogyny, creativity, the art-historical canon, and genius”. Included are selections by 20th and 21st-century female artists such as Cecily Brown, Renee Cox, Kathe Kollwitz, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Marilyn Minter, Kiki Smith, May Stevens, and Mickalene Thomas; (June 2-September 24).
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MORE TO THE STORY
Casa Natal Picasso, the artist’s birthplace museum, is on Plaza de la Merced in the historic centre of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, Andalucia, in Spain’s southeast. The dedicated museum is close to the city’s major attractions, such as Malaga Cathedral, the monumental 14th-century Gibralfaro Castle and the Archaeological Museum, housed in the palatial Alcazaba fortifications. The Picasso family rented the building’s first floor rooms from 1880-1883 and later moved nearby before settling in Galicia in the 1890s. The Picasso Foundation acquired the building in 1998 as its headquarters and repository of works by Picasso and his father, art teacher Jose Ruiz Blasco. Permanent and rotating showings in the foundation’s exhibition salon across the city square feature graphic works from the likes of Catalan artist Jean Miro, while the core attractions in the house proper are the more personal items from Picasso’s early life, including a recreation of the family library, domestic items, photos and the christening robe of the future master. The third floor is dedicated to an archive of material on the artist and his work. Open seven days; entry €3 ($4.90). Guided tours are available, which can be combined with Museo Picasso Malaga, just minutes away; about €25. For historic lodgings nearby, consider Palacio Solecio, a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member, housed in a former 18th-century palace.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
