What story do you think lies behind some of Picasso’s works?

Barcelona’s Picasso Museum and the UOC’s lletrA project invite you to take part in the “Picasso in Words” micro-story writing competition.

The micro-works for this prize should be brief stories of a maximum of 1,500 characters (including spaces). The subject matter should be inspired by one of the following works from the collection at Barcelona’s Picasso Museum:

Riera de Sant Joan Street, The Offering, Roofs of Barcelona,
The Embrace, Painter Working,Portrait of the Artist’s Mother

A narrative or dialogue should be created inspired by the work chosen. No doubt, reference will have to be made to the scene depicted, but you can take advantage of any narrative thread you can see in the painting.

Take this chance! you  have time until 23 April.

For more information, please check the TERMS

Museum’s newsroom

Our latest exhibition, Secret Images. Picasso and Japanese Erotic Prints, has been awarded the ACCA Catalan Art Critics’ Association prize in the Historical Research Exhibitions category. The ACCA 2009 Awards ceremony was held on March 23 in the MACBA, where the prize was received by the Museum’s Director, Pepe Serra, and the two curators, Ricard Bru and Malén Gual. This award represents a much-appreciated recognition of our work and a stimulus to undertake further research along similar lines. We almost feel as if we were dreaming. Not only have we learned a lot and had great fun working on this project, but the exhibition has had a very positive reception from critics and public alike and now we have won the prestigious ACCA Prize, which we have collected so excited.

The Director of the Museu Picasso and the curators of the exhibition Secret Images receiving the prize.
MACBA, 23 March 2010. Photo: Teresa Sala

But the prize is not just for the curators and the director: it’s a prize for the whole team at the Museu Picasso. An exhibition is the result of a collective effort in which the curators would not get the desired result without the part played by all of the others. It’s all about teamwork, organized and brought together by the management, in which the less visible tasks are by no means the least important.

The exhibition coordinator works closely with the curator, and is responsible for taking care of the loan of works, contacts with collectors and lenders, harmonizing the work of the different departments, organizing and supervising the montage and in many cases documenting work and even co-curating the show.

The editor in charge of the Museum’s publications is responsible for the excellence of the catalogue, which will often include essays by several authors, and she must orchestrate its internal coherence, making sure there are no repetitions, gaps or mistakes and that any quotations are exactly right. Together with the curators and the designer, the editor articulates the thesis that is being put forward and makes it intelligible. In many cases, her involvement goes well beyond her own specific role and she will help track down important but hard-to-find pieces.

The people in charge of the library and the archive, and especially of the photo archive, help the curators find documentation, provide them with the sources available in the Museum itself and facilitate contacts with and requests to other institutions. They also often compile the bibliography at the back of the catalogue.

Once the loaned works arrive at the Museum the work falls mainly on two departments: Registration and Preventive Conservation. The Registration department is in charge of the movements of the works, both the Museum’s own and those form external sources. The ‘doctors’ (as we call the restorers who diagnose and cure artworks) determine the condition of works on their arrival and take appropriate steps to ensure they will be returned in the same state of conservation, carefully controlling temperature and humidity. They advise the curators on the best place to exhibit a piece and solve the problems that arise from the fragility of certain works.

If you don’t get the word out you don’t get visitors. The Museum has to let people know about the exhibition and attract them to come and see it, because if the public doesn’t visit the show our work has been a waste of time. The Press and Communication department and the webmaster are particularly important at this stage, because without them and their press campaign, advertising, publications, exhibition website and dynamic social networks people wouldn’t come along to the Museum in the first place or keep coming back. At the same time the Activities staff run guided visits, talks and workshops for adults and children, facilitating their engagement with the exhibition and a more in-depth appreciation. Meanwhile, the Visitor Services department takes care of the visitors and the logistics of visits.

And none of this would be possible without other less visible but vital departments: Contracts, responsible for drawing up and implementing inter-institutional agreements and contracts with the firms that provide transport, security, design, montage and so on; Administration, which deals with budgets, tenders and bills, smoothing and speeding up the process as far as possible and advising the technical staff on administrative matters; Production, which is involved in the setting up of the show and facilitates the work of the external contractors, and, finally, Security, which looks after the safety of people and artworks.

A great collective endeavour. Our warm thanks to the ACCA jury and to all of the Museum staff.

Malén Gual
Conservator and co-curator of the exhibition Secret Images

We’ll be giving details and figures in another article soon. In the meantime, today we’re giving the word to you, the users of the blog. We want to thank all of you that have dedicated a few minutes of your time to letting us know your opinion. You’ll find here some of the comments we’ve received in the blog.

Our visitors, online and in person, come from all over the world and comment on any aspect that we’ve highlighted over the last few months through the social networks. This internationality has been well reflected in the participation of the contest Become a fauvist!, just as Cristina says: “(…) What is really curious is seeing where these photos come from, and to check out the international spread of the Museum and its initiatives. Well done.”

Some congratulate us with just a few words “Fantastic!!!” (Olga) commenting on the new presentation of Las Meninas while others are a bit more expressive “The Picasso museum’s doing a great job, it doesn’t matter if you come back every new season. And las Meninas is the star attraction; pity about the colour of the wall, that doesn’t help such a fantastic legacy to stand out. Congratulations.” (José).

But there are also more critical comments, like the one by Miquel “I’d like to go many times to the Picasso Museum, but every time I walk past I shudder to think of the queue I’d have to do… maybe hours long. Wouldn’t it be possible to do something to make easier to enter for the people who love art in our city and that aren’t tourists????” Measures have been taken to improve the management of publics, even so you can still find queues on the open-doors days or in concentrated periods of holidays, but now most days there aren’t queues.

Some people have written things that make you think more than others, as for example the article about accessibility of the museums that Quim comments “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and the work goes beyond the adaptation of our museography, first and foremost we need to incorporate the ‘universality’ of our proposals and actions to our more profound approaches (…).”

The topic which undoubtedly generates more opinion and comments is, the museums on the web 2.0. Verònica comments: “I’ve come from the website of the museum. I clicked on it just thinking it would be a blog with info, but it surprised to find that this text and the previous ones had so much substance and talked as much about things behind the doors, as about reflections about topics of general interest. I’ll be back, for sure (…)” or Jonathan who shares the following opinion “(…) I’d like museums acted everywhere more as participatory platforms than merely information providers. As far as I can see, the Picasso Museum is well on its way! Thank you”. Beatrice from Italy expresses in her way “Bello….un’ idea, un progetto di museo diverso, non solo contenitore ma propulsore di idee…devo conoscere il direttore!”

Then there is an article about blogs of museums, a topic Ivan disagrees and shares this with the community “I don’t think it’s so bad that a museum doesn’t have a blog, the world of social networks is great, but there’s a limit to everything, and you can get saturated. A blog runs the risk of getting to the point where you say things just for the sake of saying, and it becomes a case of either you say something or die. There are more attractive things in the world of social networks than blogs.” Respecting the opinion of others makes us reflect and make even more progress in our task of getting the museum closer to the visitors. It’s for this reason that we try to generate debates, for example, posing the question of whether the physical and virtual are two opposed worlds or if they could in fact be complementary. Ernest is of the opinion that “Online and onsite are today worlds which are not parallel but complementary; nearly all of us throughout every day end up mixing both types of actions, the online world has become a daily reality. The museums, with their virtual extension can greatly enrich and broaden experience and knowledge. (…)”.

Apart from encouraging a reflection about key topics concerning the museums nowadays, one of our aims is to show the behind-the-scenes of the museum, such as the processes needed to put on an exhibition. These types of articles have a whole bunch of positive comments, as for example: “What a good idea to explain the process, I haven’t come across this on any website. It seems very interesting to me, and says a lot about the desire that you mention in your blog to explain how your museum works. And showing discarded images is magnificent! By the way I would have chosen the more fauve of all of them, the self portrait” (Xavier about the communication campaign of the exhibition Kees van Dongen), or even “Nice way of bringing the exhibition near to the public. Lovethe pictures & video. Hope to be able to come to Barcelona to see the exhibits.” (Fiona about the “secrets” behind the exhibition Picasso and the erotic Japanese stamp).

Our visitors also share personal feelings, as for example Alejandra after visiting the exhibition about Picasso and the erotic Japanese stamp “I wasn’t at all convinced when I went to the exhibition, but I left thrilled: it is a display of art, ingenuity and daring in Picasso and in the Japanese artists, but also art, ingenuity and daring in the assemblage of the exhibition. Thanks for a great experience in the museum.” Or from a visitor to the Kees van Dongen exhibition “Wow!! Awesome! You breathe the ambience of life in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century; van Dongen, Toulouse, Picasso, Gauguin, Gris, Modigliani…” (Laura).

And to finish, Oscar sums it up: “Extraordinary. Your online work is really nice, it invites you to connect again, it contributes beauty and knowledge, it gives peace to the spirit. Your blog is fantastic for its contents, and the links are very gratifying as they spice up the texts. Thanks a million!!!”

So, what else do we need to achieve with the blog? More comments! We know it’s not easy because it requires an effort, and we’re all short of time or maybe the museum world is a little backward looking. But we sincerely believe that all the comments give an added value: opinions, feelings, criticisms, congratulations… The important thing is to connec (with the museum, the museum with the visitors, the users between them) and to participate in the community. A big thanks to all of you, and we’ll go on encouraging you to send your comments. We can only improve if we know what the readers and visitors feel and think.

Museum’s Newsroom

What do you think about the blog of the Museu Picasso?
Do you have other topics that you want us to deal with?

Last Saturday took place the first “Contes i Tocs” that this Spring Patricia McGill will tell to children and their parents within the museum galleries.

This activity was organised by Marta Iglesias from Public Programmes. I wanted to attend both out of professional interest so as to get to know this new offer for the family public, but also, as a mother, to live this experience with my children.

The participants and Patricia met up in the Pati Finestres of the museum, and that was where the story began. Nice blue coloured monsters with three eyes and one leg, started to spring up in everyone’s imagination, while she made us take hold of a rope, and pulling on it, led us round the rooms of the museum until we reached Las Meninas, where we found more monsters, princesses, cats and dogs, vacuum cleaner-coffee machines, piano-boats, and even the Little Prince and Little Red Riding Hood… The children and their parents added bits to the story and she intertwined the stories while offering a different way of looking at the works of Picasso, based on her words and our imagination, both individually and what we constructed together between us.

Playing with the stories. Photos: Jordi Mota

I really enjoyed the activity and the fact of seeing the children’s faces fascinated by the stories which emerged – and all in all it was a great experience. But it was also the feeling of being so welcomed by the rest of the visitors to the museum, who suddenly saw us arrive, big ones and small ones holding on to a rope, at one moment sailing, the next half dancing, listening to and proposing stories. Unconsciously, we imposed a change of rhythm on their visit, but they greeted us with broad smiles.

The fact is that for everyone, it seems a long time since children were seen to be a nuisance in the rooms of museums. Rather, they are now seen to be a necessity so as to keep the works alive, and that they are lived by the children, that they make them their own, and incorporate them into their own world. And in this sense, I believe that this new proposal of the museum, that welcomes families to the exhibition rooms, is very valuable indeed.

Anna Guarro
Public Programmes

When you go to the museums with children,  what do you want to find?
What experiences do you have?

After several months of intense archaeological work occasioned by the discovery of remains of mediaeval and Roman Barcelona just as excavation of the site was getting under way, the construction firm has finally been able to bring in the machines and start work.

At present it seems as if all there is to see is a big hole, but a closer look reveals the structural elements of the building – the pillars, the bearing walls and the entire perimeter.

The work of extending the Museum. Photo: Josep Maria Llobet

Last week the big tower crane that will be used to construct the building was set up. The current estimate for completion of the work is about eleven months, and it is expected that by the spring of next year the Museum’s Education Services and the Centre for Documentation and Research will be fully operational in their new home on the Plaça Jaume Sabartés.

The work of extending the Museum. Snowing…

Museum’s newsroom

Yes!!!  We have finally joined Twitter, the social network that we needed to complete the first phase of  our Social Media presence, launched in May 2009. Some of you are maybe wondering, but, weren’t you already on Twitter? And others may ask why weren’t you? Or even , why are you now?

I have answers for all these questions (sort of). The first one is a clear No. And there were several  reasons for that. First, to start small and grow from there. We opened this blog and profiles on Facebook, Delicious, Flickr, Youtube and Slideshare. The most time-demanding for us are the blog and Facebook. Twitter is tricky; it may seem that to post a short message now and then is not much time-consuming. But, I’d disagree: if you want to have a good presence there you need to have some tweet-strategy that fits into the general museum strategy and post interesting and motivating tweets, as well as react promptly to your followers’ tweets or DMs. Using Twitter just as a dissemination channel of your activities I think is a poor use of its potentialities. And if you decide to follow other museums and professionals (some museums follows none) it’s a daily task to add to many others. Furthermore, the use of Twitter six months ago in Catalonia and the rest of Spain was much smaller than it is now.

So, and this answers the third question, we decided we were now ripe to start an active Twitter presence. So far we’ve posted 172 tweets and we’ve reached almost 800 followers. The Twitter widget on the left sidebar of this blog acts as a good dissemination channel, as well. We hope the @museupicasso account will keep growing, step by step, both in numbers and in interaction.

Data on 4th March 2010: 795 followers, 135 lists

Too late? I hope not, because although I’ve read on Brian Solis’s blog, The Twitter Star: Nova or Supernova? that Twitter is down, and shows statistics confirming its use is dropping, in our country (and I think in  general in Europe) we are still on our way up. For the Museums and the Web Conference next April, I’d say that we will still have a widespread tweetering, thus continuing the dramatic growth it experienced in 2009 edition.

I’ve been tweeting for months on behalf of the museum as @innova2. This has given us a taste of the platform. And I can tell that for me Twitter is now my first and most important source of info and knowledge on museums and social networking.

Conxa Rodà
Project Manager

What will Twitter’s future be? What do you think?

Yes!!!  We have finally joined Twitter, the social network that we needed to complete the first phase of  our Social Media presence, launched in May 2009. Some of you are maybe wondering, but, weren’t you already on Twitter? And others may ask why weren’t you? Or even , why are you now?

I have answers for all these questions (sort of). The first one is a clear No. And there were several  reasons for that. First, to start small and grow from there. We opened this blog and profiles on Facebook, Delicious, Flickr, Youtube and Slideshare. The most time-demanding for us are the blog and Facebook. Twitter is tricky; it may seem that to post a short message now and then is not much time-consuming. But, I’d disagree: if you want to have a good presence there you need to have some tweet-strategy that fits into the general museum strategy and post interesting and motivating tweets, as well as react promptly to your followers’ tweets or DMs. Using Twitter just as a dissemination channel of your activities I think is a poor use of its potentialities. And if you decide to follow other museums and professionals (some museums follows none) it’s a daily task to add to many others. Furthermore, the use of Twitter six months ago in Catalonia and the rest of Spain was much smaller than it is now.

So, and this answers the third question, we decided we were now ripe to start an active Twitter presence. So far we’ve posted 172 tweets and we’ve reached almost 800 followers. The Twitter widget on the left sidebar of this blog acts as a good dissemination channel, as well. We hope the @museupicasso account will keep growing, step by step, both in numbers and in interaction.

Data on 4th March 2010: 795 followers, 135 lists

Too late? I hope not, because although I’ve read on Brian Solis’s blog, The Twitter Star: Nova or Supernova? that Twitter is down, and shows statistics confirming its use is dropping, in our country (and I think in  general in Europe) we are still on our way up. For the Museums and the Web Conference next April, I’d say that we will still have a widespread tweetering, thus continuing the dramatic growth it experienced in 2009 edition.

I’ve been tweeting for months on behalf of the museum as @innova2. This has given us a taste of the platform. And I can tell that for me Twitter is now my first and most important source of info and knowledge on museums and social networking.

Conxa Rodà
Project Manager

What will Twitter’s future be? What do you think?

One of the greatest joys of my professional life was when we learned from the Daily Telegraph of 1 May 1984 about the will of the late Lord Amulree. Basil William Sholto Mackenzie, 2nd Baron Amulree, KBE, FRCP (1900-1983), a leading specialist in geriatrics and chronic illness, President of the Society for the Study of Medial Ethics and Liberal Peer and Whip in the House of Lords from 1955 until 1977, had bequeathed a painting by Matisse to the Tate Gallery, a Monet at the National Gallery of Scotland, a Braque to the Israel Museum in Jersusalem and Picasso’s The Offering to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. It was the English art historian and collector Douglas Cooper (1915-1985) who informed the Museum of Lord Amulree’s wonderful donation and put us in touch with the executors.

Once the legal and tax details had been dealt with, The Offering was shipped to the Museum and presented on 19 November 1985. We on the staff experienced the usual combination of initial surprise and an almost euphoric gratitude felt by any museum receiving a donation, but magnified in this case by our complete lack of personal knowledge of our generous benefactor, the entirely unexpected nature of the legacy and the importance of the work, because the series of drawings and paintings devoted to the subject of the offering is vital to any understanding of the path that led Picasso to the invention of Cubism. This gouache, small in size but very big in significance, and one of the Museum’s most emblematic works, is a paradigm of how Picasso gathered so much from the past and then dynamited it sky high to create his own language.

Pablo Picasso. The Offering. Paris 1980. Guache on cardboard paper with white
primer. 30,8 x 31,1 cm. Donated by Lord Amulree, 1985. MPB 112.716

The discovery of African art and the inclusion of Cézanne’s Les Grandes Baigneuses (1899-1906) in the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1907 had an immediate impact on the work of young artists looking for new forms of expression. Like Georges Braque and André Derain, Picasso began making paintings with deliberately schematic, primitive figures, a reflection and synthesis of the compositions of the master from Aix-en-Provence and the formal simplification of African carvings. Friendship, Three Women, Women in the Wood and The offering constituted Picasso’s response to Cézanne’s latest work.

Museu Picasso de Barcelona. The label with the sketch for The Offering (Musée Picasso, Paris)

The Offering celebrates the artist’s reconciliation with his lover Fernande and pays tribute to Cézanne’s few erotic paintings. The first preparatory drawing, on a leaf of a sketchbook dated 1907-1908, shows a reclining woman receiving a bouquet of flowers from a male figure under the watchful eye of an angel. The winged figure has disappeared in the second sketch, and a handwritten annotation in Spanish describing the scene: ‘She is lying on a bed and he / uncovers her lifting the sheet behind the hangings of the / couch and the room, he has / a bouquet of flowers in his / hand’.

Malén Gual
Curator