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 »

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.

Read more »

20th December 2011

Conference on decorative printed paper at Museu Picasso

The presentation of the process of restoring the Palau Aguilar’s 16^th-century polychrome printed wallpaper recovered in 2010 (see the article on the website) was a perfect opportunity for a professional get-together on Monday the 12th.

The director of the Museu Picasso, Pepe Serra, opened the conference with a reminder of the important contribution made by technical expertise (materials, creative processes, etc) in the documentation not only of the museum’s collections and also of its buildings.

Restoring the Palau Aguilar’s ceiling Read more »

26th September 2011

Virtual learning about the cultural heritage: the findings of research at the UOC

How are social and technological changes affecting learning? What can our museums and heritage centres do to provide or co-produce inspiring and meaningful online educational resources for different publics? Janine Sprünker has dealt with all of this and more in her thesis, which we have asked her to summarize so as to share it with you in our blog. The thesis has been distinguished with a well-deserved summa cum laude. Congratulations, Janine, and thanks for condensing several years of research and hundreds of pages for us here!

On July 1, I defended the thesis entitled ‘Heritage Education Using Online Educational Resources with Cultural Content and Learning Networks’ before the UOC open university. Before attempting to summarize the thesis I would like to thank the Museu Picasso and Conxa Rodà for inviting me to write this post and giving me the opportunity to share with you some of the conclusions and one of the research questions that is challenging us again. Read more »

9th May 2011

Dream and Lie of Franco: beyond Picasso

Removing a work of art from the context in which it is normally found can have surprising consequences, and the exhibition “Cartoons on the Front Line” at the Museu Picasso is a clear illustration of this.

The central core of the exhibition is the series of etchings and sugar-lift aquatint with scraper Dream and Lie of Franco, prints by Picasso from the museum’s collection.

Dream and Lie of Franco [plate 1, state II]. Paris, 8 January 1937. Etching and sugar aquatint on copper plate, printed on Montval laid paper

Read more »

8th March 2011

Picasso 2.0 Under the Microscope: Findings of a Master’s Project

It is with great pleasure that we publish the article and the project on Picasso 2.0, the research subject we proposed to Jacqueline for her final thesis for her Master’s. Our proposal was in two parts: the first was a kind of ‘audit’ o the museum’s presence on the social networks and the second was to suggest ways of improving it. The results went far beyond our expectations. And, quite rightly, the committee awarded the thesis its highest mark.
Thanks, Jacqueline, for the great work — and congratulations!

Conxa Rodà

A few months ago I did the practice placement of my Master’s in Cultural Heritage Management at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, combining my time there with the preparation of my final project, ‘A Museum without Walls. Towards a more dynamic Museu Picasso Barcelona through the web 2.0 .’ Read more »

3rd March 2011

Opening the doors of the new building

On Saturday, the 19th March, the new Centre of Knowledge and Research of the Museu Picasso will offer an open doors day, within the framework of the “We open the Born neighbourhood to culture and commerce” event.  The building has been constructed with the idea of it becoming a space of local and international reference in the study and research about Picasso and his artistic and social context.  The centre has been conceived as a dynamic space for promoting research, reflection and critical debate, and therefore, to generate new knowledge.

Exterior and interior of the building. Photo: Josep M Llobet

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2nd November 2010

Juggling on carrer Flassaders: the progress of the works for the new building of Museu Picasso

This past week from the windows looking onto Plaça de Jaume Sabartés we had the chance to watch an excellent display of ‘juggling’.

The crane used to put up the Museu Picasso annex building was dismantled and taken away in what can only be described as a marvel of mobility.

It took 12 hours of work on the part of the construction company. Once carrer Princesa had been closed to traffic, the crane was moved piece by piece from the middle of the square and a shuttle truck took it out onto carrer Princesa. You can imagine what was involved! Read more »

16th November 2009

Doctoral Thesis on Picasso’s Iconography

On Monday, November 9, the doctoral thesis ‘Picasso’s Iconography between 1905 and 1907. The Influence of Pompeian Painting’ by Conchita Boncompte, and supervised by Dr. Lourdes Cirlot, was read at the Universitat de Barcelona.

The thesis sets out to demonstrate the influence of Pompeian painting on the work Picasso produced between 1905 and 1907, an influence that was supported by and engaged in dialogue with Picasso’s milieu and his experience of Catalan Romanesque from his stay in Gósol. The highly stimulating presentation of this study, which runs to more than 700 pages, and promises to open up new avenues of research, has already prompted many to wish that it be made accessible to a wider readership.

It would be an impossible task to summarize here the wealth of research and visual information put forward in the session, and we have therefore asked the author herself to give us a brief extract:

Read more »