14th May 2012

Talking about Picasso’s Guernica at Montjuïc

The Generalitat de Catalunya’s Memorial Democràtic initiative has organized a series of activities, exhibitions and talks to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Civil War bombing of the civilian population.

Guernica. Pablo Picasso, 1937. Oil on canvas

Although aerial bombardment had been used in previous wars, the Spanish Civil War was the first in which the civilian population was subjected to intensive and continuous attack from the air. First in Euskadi — the Basque Country — and then all over the country, the rebel General Franco’s army and its Italian and German allies systematically bombed defenceless towns and cities behind the lines. This aberrant tactic continued during World War II and culminated in the dropping of the atomic bomb, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then the bombing of the civilian population has been a common practice in almost all wars. Read more »

13th April 2012

Building the Neighbourhood with BarriBrossa

This week saw the presentation to the press of the ninth annual BarriBrossa, a festival organized by La Seca Espai Brossa that, in the words of co-director Hermann Bonnín, ‘isn’t really a festival, or an arts fair: it aims rather to be a reflection on our culture that sheds light on those avant-garde movements of the twentieth century that are still relevant the twenty-first century’.

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24th February 2012

The history of Barcelona as told by the medieval courtyards of the Museu Picasso

One of the first tasks undertaken by the Centre for Knowledge and Research, soon after it was founded in 2009, was to ask the firm of Veclus, s.l. to carry out an architectural history study of the five palaces on carrer Moncada that are the current home of the Museu Picasso.

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8th February 2012

Of Princes and Heroes at the Reading Club

The discussion of Javier Pérez Andújar’s autobiographical novel Los principes valientes — in which he talks about the relationship between the town of Sant Adrià del Besós and the city of Barcelona, about ​​the river as a vital border, about how we build up our imagination with what we read and a whole multifarious mix of cultural myths — was characterized by a warmth that contrasted with the intense cold outside.

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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 »

25th October 2011

Big Draw. The Festival of Drawing in pictures!

Big Draw in Barcelona has been a great participatory event thanks to you all. See you next year!!!

Here you have a small selection of photos of the day! Read more »

14th June 2011

What do the Museu Picasso, Europeana and cultural hackers have in common?

That’s easy: the philosophy of making content and tools available to users. The Museu Picasso has a collection and the aim of extending knowledge and enjoyment of it to the greatest possible number of users. The Europeana internet portal, which currently offers access to some 19 million cultural objects, has the same aim as the Museum. The expert developers have the skills and the talent to make the data ‘play’ and extract open applications that are made accessible to the public.

This happy triangulation has proved an ideal culture medium, helping make the Hackathon event in Barcelona and the prototypes it featured such a success. Invited by Europeana, programmers from Catalonia, the rest of Spain, France, Italy and The Netherlands worked intensely over a day and a half to create a total of 17 projects. The venue? The future library of the Museu Picasso’s new Centre for Knowledge and Research, a bright and spacious facility with a great window looking onto Plaça Jaume Sabartés — a perfect setting for exploring and creating knowledge. Read more »

13th May 2011

“Devouring Paris”, between Amsterdam and Barcelona

On 29 May exhibition “Devouring Paris. Picasso 1900-1907” at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam will close its doors and get ready to come to Barcelona, ​​where it will open next June 30.

Catalog cover

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13th April 2011

Montcada, a Street of Unique Shops

Carrer Montcada is one of the most singular streets in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella ‘old town’. The medieval palaces that line both sides for most of its length, with their imposing stone façades and porticoed courtyards, give it an unmistakable character of its own. The Museu Picasso opened its doors here almost fifty years ago, having found a home with a unique historic and artistic heritage. Following its example, other museums and art galleries have come to occupy spaces and buildings on the street, making it an exceptional nucleus of culture. But it’s not only culture that has found a place on carrer Montcada. Still open for business along the way are a number of historic shops, enduring testimony to the commercial importance that the district of La Ribera has had for hundreds of years.

Carrer Montcada. View from the Museu Picasso

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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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