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 »

19th January 2012

The Pieces of a Jigsaw

I’ve always liked books with pictures. When I was little I spent a lot of afternoons on the sofa leafing through one of the few books with photographs that we had at home. Years later I worked as editor on a collection of history books, which were also illustrated, and I remember my boss at the time saying that the combinations of images should speak for themselves.

Provisional and final versions of a page of the second number of the Focus collection”Picasso 1936. Traces of an exhibition” 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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31st January 2011

The catalogue of the Museu Picasso library is now online!

This announcement of the launch of the online Museum library catalogue will probably come as a surprise to many of you, and some of you may even have the feeling that you have already consulted it. The fact is that our regular users have previously had access to the physical catalogue in situ, in the Museum’s public consultation space, but what we are presenting here is the online catalogue, available on the Internet.

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30th December 2010

2010 of the Picasso Museum in 21 images

By making a choice of the most representative images of the work we have done in the museum this year that is coming to a close, we ourselves have been able to visualise the reach and quantity of the projects in which the whole team has been working! With a relatively small team a lot of work has been carried out.  Whether it has been good or not is up to you to decide.  The rate of participation in the multiple activities organised, plus the more than one million visitors we have received, plus some awards indicate that we are heading in the right direction, but we still have to do more and better.  Your comments and criticisms help us to improve so that the museum becomes a space of more and more knowledge open to debate and participation.

[click on the images to enlarge]

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19th November 2010

Abstract: A new collection

When I started working at the Museu Picasso, six years ago, I was thrilled with the idea of being involved in producing the catalogues that accompany the temporary exhibitions. But I also had a very particular aspiration, the origin of which goes back to 1984.

Cover of the petit journal for the Kandinsky’s exhibition in 1984. Read more »

15th February 2010

Love at First Sight: how we select the catalogue’s cover

Imagine you’re browsing among the art catalogues in a bookshop, without looking for anything in particular. The first thing that strikes you about all of the books there — from a distance, even before you can read the titles — is the colourful covers. Reproductions of famous paintings, intriguing details, familiar styles, indecipherable typefaces… you stroll over to a table next to the shelves and pick up a catalogue. Could you say just what it was that attracted you to it? What made you go for this one rather than some other? If the cover had been different, would have you have looked inside it anyway? And when you did open it, was the interest that the cover aroused in you confirmed by the contents, or were you disappointed?

We tend to think that in the case of an art catalogue, like any other book, the cover is the bait dangled in front of the reader, the siren song we hope will entrance you. Choosing one design over another is not simply a matter of taste. The decision is made according to what we want to say to you, what part of the content we want to focus on, what we believe will attract your attention. Read more »