It’s here again! The 2nd edition of ZOOM has arrived and is up and running!
In our last post, about the Balance of 2016 in the Museu Picasso, we explained, amongst other topics, the programme of activities that we offered in the Museum , and one of the star activities that we talked about was «Zoom. The collection under analysis».
As many of you will remember, last year the 1st edition of ZOOM was created, an innovative monthly activity (open to all publics and of free access) in which we got to know the works of Picasso from two different aspects, the point of view of an art historian and of an artist, with who we would carry out an artistic exercise inspired by the work being studied.
Poster 2016 of «Zoom. The collection under analysis»
Specifically, on Thursday February 2nd we resumed the ZOOM activity for 2017 with the work Minotauromachy (1935). The first part was directed by the conservator of engravings of our Museum, Claustre Rafart, and the illustrator and artist Alexis Rom and the technician in printing and graphic creation Carlos Alguacil led the second part, in which the participants worked first hand on the art of engraving.
Photo: Jordi Mota
Photo: Jordi Mota
With regard to the second activity of this new season of ZOOM, this Thursday we got to know Fairground Stall (1900) through a session given by the art historian Teresa M. Sala and the artist Montserrat Pena.
Photo: Jordi Mota
Pablo Picasso. Fairground stall. Paris, autumn of 1900. Oil on canvas. 38.1 x 46.3 cm. Museu Picasso, Barcelona.Barcelona Culture Foundation acquisition, 2005. MPB 113.113. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Photograph, Gasull Fotografia
During the first part of ZOOM, Teresa M. Sala placed us in the context of the work and the life of the young Picasso, who had travelled to Paris for the first time, the major capital of modern art at that time, and where the Universal Exposition of 1900 was held, where Picasso would get to know and discover the works of other artists, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Furthermore, the art historian Teresa M. Sala invited us to compare the work of Picasso with La Danse mauresque (1895) by Toulouse-Lautrec, two oil paintings in which the topic is based around the Parisian nightlife of the 20th century.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. La Danse mauresque. 1895. Oil on canvas. 298 x 316 cm. Paris, Musée d’Orsay. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / DR
Both works show fairground stalls, one inside and the other outside, structures that were easy to set up and to take down, that were organised around theatres and popular locations and where shows of dance and circus were held.
Teresa M. Sala invited us to get to know the characters from the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, where well-known figures appear such as Goulue, the legendary dancer from the Moulin Rouge, and friends of the author such as Oscar Wilde and Fèlix Fèneon, and also the artist himself represented in the middle of the public. However, in the work of Picasso, given that it has a much more blurred brushstroke than in the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, we still don’t know the identities of the characters, which leads to an atmosphere of mystery with dispersed characters, originated with flowing, fresh and intense brushstrokes. As a whole it is a vibrant work which shows us a scene from the nightlife of the young Picasso and that invites us to take part in what the artist was living at that very moment.
Photo: Jordi Mota
Moreover, other characteristics of the work that Teresa M. Sala pointed out to us, are the complementary colours: the use of red in the dancer and the background of the scene contrasted with the intense green of the railings of the fairground stall, in such a way that they help to represent the intensity and vitality of the scene. It is worth emphasising the female character situated on the lower right of the painting, who, with her staring look, invites us to take part in the show.
To finish the activity of «Zoom. The collection under analysis», during the second part, the artist Montserrat Pena resumed the Picassian invitation to incorporate ourselves in the work and she guided us to create various scenes over the projections of the installations of the Museu Picasso of Barcelona. If, in Fairground Stall, the young Picasso painted his impression of a leisure scene in a specific space and moment, what Montse Pena proposed was that the public of ZOOM created, captured and froze leisure scenes but on different surfaces and locations.
Photo: Jordi Mota
Photo: Jordi Mota
The participants were divided into groups, according to the image that attracted them most, to be mural artists, and the imagination and teamwork became the protagonists. The final result was four mural paintings on the white walls of an exhibition room, based on large-sized projections of spaces of the Museu Picasso of Barcelona, in which the public interacted with the painted scenes and the material available to them, all in all, with the ambience that they themselves had created.
In the Gallery 0, located on the ground floor of the Museum, we present the results of the activity, with free access from the Montcada Street!
From the Museu Picasso of Barcelona we invite you to participate on Thursday April 6th in «Zoom. The collection under analysis», in which we will take an in-depth look at the work Science and Charity (1897), one of the most emblematic works of the collection and the most representative from the formative period of the young Picasso, with Malén Gual and Yamandú Canosa.
We look forward to seeing you!
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