So the year comes to an end, and from the museum we are taking a look back to evaluate everything we have achieved. This has been a very busy year in terms of proposals and projects, among which we would like to highlight the following:
—Exhibition “Picasso/Dalí. Dalí/Picasso”: very well received by the public and by the critics, the exhibition has been one of the most visited in the history of the museum, and represents a step forward in the aim of the museum to be a centre of reference in terms of research around Picasso. In this case, it has explored for the first time, the relations and links between two of the most relevant artists of the 21st century, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, in a joint production between the Dalí Museum of Saint Petersburg, in Florida, USA, and the collaboration of the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí of Figueres, two museums of reference with regard to the study of Dalí.
Exhibition Picasso/Dalí. Dalí/Picasso. 19/03/2015. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photographer: Àlex Garcia Martínez
Opening of the exhibition with his curator, William Jeffett
—Increasing the patrimony of the museum: in this field it is worth highlighting the valuable donation of the documental collection of the historian Brigitte Baer by her nephew David Leclerc, which has enriched our documental patrimony, which had already been increased over recent years, with incorporations such as the donation of the collection of the publisher Editorial Gustavo Gili and the donation by David Douglas Duncan of a selection of 163 photographs from his collection un 2013, on the occasion of the anniversary of the museum. These incorporations reinforce the task of growth of the collection of 2014, with the purchasing of the Gili-Torra collection, which contributed drawings, prints, and a sketchbook of drawings from the 1950s. In the documentary field, the Centre of Documentation and Research has become consolidated as an archive of reference for the research about Picasso, above all with regard to the documentation about prints, of which we possess an extensive collection which is currently being catalogued.
Brigitte Baer at La Pedrera. Barcelona, 1990. Photograph: David Leclerc | Sample of the diferent documental materials from the Brigitte Baer Holdings. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Gift of David Leclerc, 2015
Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photographer: Josep Maria Llobet
—A museum for its city: the actions of relations and networking with our immediate community have been growing and have become consolidated during 2015, with an enlargement of the socio-educational activity, by means of proposals such as: the “Neighbourhood Projects”, which this year have been aimed at schools and also non-profit making entities in the neighborhood; training activities for professionals in the education field such as the Pica-Picasso, among others; our projects of social inclusion, in which we would like to highlight the memory workshops for the elderly of the neighbourhood, or the work with Apropa Cultura (Getting closer to Culture); the consolidation of the Big Draw, which has become a reference in terms of family leisure in Barcelona; and the success of the educational program for schools, through which we have received 20,000 students from all over Catalonia in our workshop visits and animated visits.
Memory workshop for the elderly of the neighbourhood
Big Draw Barcelona 2015. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photographer: Jordi Mota
—The museum as a creator of knowledge: the training of professionals and the search for new ways of interpretation and analysis of the work of Picasso have also been the protagonists of the actions of the museum, in particular with the holding of the seminar “The blue period: new interpretations through technical study”, an event which was internationally recognized in which top level research was presented based around this period of Picasso, among them the studies carried out by the museum itself, which contributed new revelations about the creative process of the artist. The second “Master conference Jaume Sabartés” also took place, with the participation of the art historian Yve-Alain Bois, who presented for the first time a research based around the relation of the artist with abstraction.
Seminar “The blue period: new interpretations through technical study”. Photo of the director Bernardo Laniado-Romero with the speakers Patricia Favero, Allison P. Langley, Ann Hoenigswald, Julie Barten and Reyes Jiménez de Garnica. Photographer: Dani Rovira | Seminar “The blue period: new interpretations through technical study”. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photographer: Dani Rovira
“Master conference Jaume Sabartés”. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photographer: Dani Rovira
—Renovation of the infrastructures: it maybe that this is the least glamourous field regarding the goals achieved by the museum in 2015, but it is nevertheless an essential issue for the good functioning of the museum and in which a lot of effort has been made and many resources allocated, both human and economic. The renovation of a large part of our heating and air conditioning system, totally obsolete and that could have caused problems both for the public and for the works of the collection, has been a very large-scale work, even though it has been practically invisible to the visitors of the museum. It has been a task that has enabled the good functioning of the museum and will continue during 2016.
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