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 September 2011

On Iberian Heads and Self-portraits

As “Feasting on Paris. Picasso 1900-1907” comes to its last weeks, we have asked its curator, Marilyn McCully, to give us an insider’s view of a particularly significant artwork in the exhibition. If you woud like to know more about Ms. McCully’s thesis and the exhibition, take a look at the short interview with her in our Summer Capsules as well as the specific web site. And if you haven’t yet got round to visiting the exhibition, don’t miss this last opportunity to do so.

Self-Portrait with a Palette. Picasso.(Paris, 1906 Read more »

14th September 2011

Circus Figures Wreathed in Mystery

In the context of the exhibition Devouring Paris. Picasso 1900-1907, co-produced with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, we invited Edwin Becker, Head of Exhibitions at the Van Gogh, to tell us about his favourite work in the show and why he likes it. Becker also offered us his vision of the Paris that Picasso would have found at the beginning of the twentieth century, in a brief interview in our Summer Capsules.

“In an exhibition, I always try to show the importance of the present and establish relationships with it. Of course it is wonderful to admire the art treasures of the past, the features of a movement or images of an era, but it is much more interesting to relate artworks to present-day events, trends and themes, or even to other works of different periods or in other media. Read more »

18th May 2011

From Picasso’s caricature Dream and Lie of Franco to Toño Salazar’s Coplas

The backbone of our exhibition “Cartoons on the Front Line” is the pair of sugar-lift aquatints with scraper that make up Dream and Lie of Franco. Picasso made these etchings in Paris, in June 1937, almost a year into the Spanish Civil War, in order to raise money for the Republican cause.

The context of the exhibition as a whole brings out the true value of the etchings, which can be seen here in all their essence and at the same time socialized, interacting as they do with a multidisciplinary group of works — around one hundred and twenty! — by different artists: paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, illustrated books, documentary films, magazines and posters of authors artists from Goya to Picasso himself by way of Grosz, Heartfield, Helios Gómez, Luis Seoane, Brangulí, Josep Maria Sagarra, Centelles, Pérez de Rozas, Josep Renau, Mauricio Amster, Mariano Rawicz and others. 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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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

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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 »

29th October 2010

As a guided tour through the exhibition

Interview with Richard Kendall and Elizabeth Cowling, curators of the exhibition “Picasso looks at Degas“. Selected comments and complete video of the interview.

Richard Kendall: She works on Picasso, I work on Degas, and we said, well, here is a story, there’s a very interesting story, a challenge for us to put it into the form of an exhibition and to examine the way that Picasso looked at Degas, learned from Degas, got engaged with Degas’ art, and how that works out through the course of his career. That’s really the basis of the exhibition: it’s a very simple idea which we followed step by step through the show.

Read more »

7th October 2010

Presentation of the 2010-1011 Programme: a lot of work done and a lot still to do!

This week we presented our programme for the 2010-2011 season, which we are particularly pleased with because it embodies the results of the Museum’s evolution and the main objectives we set ourselves three years ago:

• To promote research and knowledge from the Museum itself as a basis on which to undertake projects;

• To continue to review Picassian narratives and the critical reception of the artist’s work in the area of Barcelona and Spanish.

This programme is a proposal of greater complexity than in previous years, and most of the projects have been generated in-house with the aim of continue to make the Museum a space for debate and participation. Read more »

21st September 2010

What is involved in dismantling an exhibition?

When a temporary exhibition closes, the work doesn’t stop there. Have you ever wondered what happens when a show is over? The people responsible for dismantling our exhibitions explain the many things that have to be done.

ISABEL CENDOYA – Exhibitions Coordinator

Taking down an exhibition involves two weeks of intense work: checking the condition of the pieces, taking them off the walls or out of their display cases and packing them securely for transport. At the same time, it also means the end of a process, of a project to which you have devoted many hours of effort, and saying goodbye to objects you have probably been living with for weeks and months. Read more »