20th March 2012

The Mystery of the Tilted Picture

If you have visited the collection of the Museu Picasso in recent years and have a sharp eye you will probably have noticed that one of the artworks slants away from the wall at an angle. Do you know which picture we’re talking about? In fact, this is one of the highlights of the collection: Motherhood, a pastel from 1903.

Motherhood. Pablo Picasso, 1903

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1st March 2012

Picasso at the Tate

On 15 February, the monumental exhibition “Picasso & Modern British Art” opened to the public at Tate Britain in London. The show traces all of the significant points of connection between Pablo Picasso and the British art scene, from his influence on artists such as Duncan Grant and Wyndham Lewis in the early years of the twentieth century, through the admiration he inspired in such seminal figures as Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Francis Bacon, especially between the wars, to the second half of the century, when he was a source for inspiration to Graham Sutherland and David Hockney, among others.

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16th February 2012

Two Old Friends Meet again in Space, Time and Art

After spending two years apart in different rooms of the Museu Picasso, now, as a result of a redistribution of the collection towards the end of 2011, two highlights of our collection —Woman’s Head (Fernande), from 1905, and Portrait of Madame Canals (1906), now known as Portrait of Benedetta Bianco — are on show in the same space once again, directly facing one another.

This new placing of the two works, the first a sculpture and the other a painting, reflects a desire to explain the influence of their respective models on the personal and artistic world of Picasso in Paris in the early years of the twentieth century.

Portrait of Benedetta Bianco | Woman’s Head (Fernande)

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31st January 2012

Farewell to Pepe Serra: assessment of a phase

When our director Pepe Serra said goodbye to the team at the Museu Picasso he told us: ‘We have done ten years’ work in five years.’ What follows is a brief summary of some of the projects carried out during his time as director.

· Research and development of exhibitions that contribute knowledge and added value.

“Feasting on Paris. Picasso 1900-1907” (2011). Self-Portrait with Palette, Picasso, Paris, 1906 |  “Picasso Looks at Degas” (2010). Read more »

26th January 2012

The Making of “Picasso 1936. Traces of an Exhibition”

The putting together of “Picasso 1936. Traces of an Exhibition” was a very special challenge. There we were, an art museum, proposing a show containing no original work of any kind: in the words of the curator of this radical venture, Sílvia Domènech, it was a question of creating an exhibition of documents rather than with documents, in order to conceptualize the significance of the Picasso Exhibition held in Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Bilbao in 1936 through analysis of the archives.

Interview with Silvia Domenech, curator of the exhibition Read more »

17th January 2012

Picasso’s Barcelona Roofs

We are pleased to share with you some excerpts from an article by Francesc Pujols, ‘The Rooftops of Barcelona’, ​​first published in “La Publicidad” on 18 June 1920. Though written a few years after Picasso’s time in Barcelona, when he painted a number of pictures with the city’s rooftops as their theme, the writer seems to be describing some of the works in our collection. We are thankful to the poet Enric Casassess for sending us the article, which came to his mind as he was walking round the Museu Picasso.

Roofs of Barcelona. Pablo Picasso, 1903 Read more »

30th December 2011

The Museu Picasso’s 2011 in images

The task of choosing the most representative images of this year that is coming to an end was far from easy. Between us, we have worked on a lot of projects! Exhibitions, activities, research and restoration, education, registrar, library, publications, communications, administration, visitor services… it’s a long list. Here, then, is just a taste of what the museum has done in 2011.

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17th November 2011

Picasso in Tel Aviv

From 17 November 2011 to 20 January 2012 the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is hosting the Picasso exhibition “Tauromachy. Works from the Collection of the Museu Picasso Barcelona”. The initiative has come about as part of the cooperation agreement between the Museu Picasso and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), which chose to show Picasso for the first time in Israel, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two states.

Table of registers Read more »

20th October 2011

A Palazzo by the Arno for Picasso

The Palazzo Giulia Rosselmini Gualandi, a magnificent Renaissance mansion on the banks of the Arno, is home to the Fondazzione Palazzo Blu, and is hosting the exhibition “Ho voluto essere pittore e sono diventato Picasso” — I Wanted to Be a Painter and I Became Picasso. This is the first ever show of Picasso’s work in the city of Pisa and it runs from 14 October 2011 to 29 January 2012. The major retrospective brings together some two hundred works, including paintings, drawings, ceramics and etchings, and traces Picasso’s output from 1901 to 1970. The show has been organized and coordinated by the Giunti Arte Mostre e Musei cultural council, and was curated by Claudia Beltrami Ceppi.

Entrance to the exhibition with the Leaning Tower in the background Read more »

22nd March 2011

Some True Stories from the Museu Picasso

‘Can we see Picasso’s Mona Lisa?’ ‘Don’t you have any colour postcards of Guernica?’ Unlikely as they may seem, these are some of the odd questions and curious situations that confront the Museum staff from time to time. In its almost 50 years of existence the Museu Picasso has built up a rich stock of good stories — often funny, sometimes surprising and on occasion touching. Here are some of the anecdotes that have become abiding favourites among the Museum’s gallery staff.

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