The jewels and sketchbooks of Picasso are the protagonists of two of the major temporary exhibitions that can be seen in the museum this year, 2020, which deal with two little known aspects of the artist. The museum will also present an exhibition based on the recent discovery of a surrealist object by Óscar Domínguez, Jamais, from 1938, a work that the artist from the Canary Islands had given as a gift to Picasso, but until a year ago it was not known where it was. The proposal of temporary exhibitions for 2020 is “multi-faceted”, in the words of the director of the museum, Emmanuel Guigon.
The genius of Picasso can be seen in many varied ways, but there is an unpublished aspect of his production that has never been studied in depth: jewellery and goldsmith work. The artist produced a large number of fantasy jewellery items, often from materials he found or ceramic pieces, which his wives wore, such as Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque, but also other members of his family and the people around him. This almost intimate and very poetic aspect of Picasso’s production, alongside the many pieces of jewellery of four friends and contemporaries of the artist –Manolo Hugué, Julio González, Francisco Durrio and Pablo Gargallo– and of other subsequent creators, will be analysed in the exhibition Picasso and the artist’s jewels, which will be inaugurated on 8th May.
LASCH Kary H. Picasso examinant un collier. Tirage non daté 23 x 16,9 cm. Còpia moderna Musée national Picasso-Paris APPH7057 ©Successió Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid 2020
Another exhibition will be inaugurated on the same day with a unique and exciting story: the rediscovery of the surrealistic object Jamais, by Oscar Domínguez, a piece that was exhibited in the crucial Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Paris in 1938. Jamais, which represents a phonograph from which emerges a woman’s legs and a hand that acts as a needle, was considered to be missing until a little over a year ago, but, according to Emmanuel Guigon, during the preparation for the exhibition Picasso. The photographer’s gaze, some unpublished photos were found by Nick de Morgoli, in which the painter is seen with the work. Finally, the piece was found in the storeroom of a family collection, from which, once restored, it would emerge to be included in the exhibition.
Nick de Morgoli. Pablo Picasso amb l’objecte surrealista Jamais, d’Óscar Domínguez, París, 1947. Nick de Morgoli. Bibliothèque Emmanuel Boussard, París © Successió Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid 2020
Another aspect of Picasso that gives many clues to his creative process are his sketchbooks. Picasso kept most of his sketchbooks all his life and of the 175 he filled from 1894 to 1967, the museum preserves 19, 17 of which were donated to the museum by the artist and correspond to the childhood and youth of the painter, and 2 that are later acquisitions. The exhibition Picasso Sketchbooks, which opens on 20th November, highlights the value of the museum’s collection, as it will show all the drawings from these sketchbooks, using new technologies so that the public can appreciate them in all their splendour. In addition, the exhibition will explain the context of these sketches with works such as family portraits, landscapes, prints, plaster work and studies of nature, and pieces that illustrate the relationship of Picasso with masters such as Velázquez, El Greco and Goya.
Pablo Picasso. Estudi per a Vell pescador. Màlaga, 1895. MPB 111.171. Quadern MPB110.913. Donació, Pablo Picasso, 2-1970. Museu Picasso de Barcelona © Successió Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid 2020
The museum, which in recent years has been keen on current creation in dialogue with the permanent collection, will also host small-format exhibitions by two contemporary artists: Carlos Pazos will present an installation that reflects on the figure of Picasso in the cinema, and the French artist Hélène Delprat who will bring her multi-disciplinary work which mixes documentary and fiction.
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