Picasso in photo. Archives of the Museu Picasso de Barcelona

Start date
29.04.2023
Fecha de fin
28.07.2023
Schedule

Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 21:00 hours
Monday closed

Museum/institution
Museo Picasso Barcelona
Address
c/ Montcada, 15-23
Barcelona

Picasso in photographs. Archives of the Museu Picasso de Barcelona brings together a selection from the photography collection of the Museu Picasso de Barcelona, which today houses a collection of more than three thousand photographs showing the creative processes and life of Picasso.

The exhibition presents works from the collections of the photographers Lucien Clergue and David Douglas Duncan, as well as documents from Brigitte Baer's archive, in addition to a selection from the Museum's photography collection when it was being created in Barcelona, and family albums by friends of Picasso such as Jaume Sabartés and Gustau Gili.

Lucien Clergue (Arles, 1934 - Nîmes, 2014) was not yet twenty years old when, in 1953, on leaving a bullfight in Arles, he presented his first photographs to Pablo Picasso and took the opportunity to photograph him. A friendship was forged between painter and photographer that led to twenty-seven meetings during which Clergue visited the villa La Californie in Cannes, Picasso's home and studio, and during which he recorded almost twenty years of his life (the last photographs date from 1971).  The exhibition brings together a selection of these images by Clergue, whose collection was acquired by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona in 2016. It is the photographic diary that Clergue wrote about the days he shared with Picasso, but it is also a family album and the diary of a friendship in which an intimate Picasso appears, caught up in his day-to-day life, tender and pensive.

In 1956 David Douglas Duncan (Kansas City, 1916 - Grassa, 2018), encouraged by Robert Capa, met Pablo Picasso and from that day on they maintained a close friendship until 1973. In 2013, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the photographer wanted to pay tribute to his friend and donated a selection of 163 photographs from the years he shared with the painter from Malaga. The exhibition presents a selection of these photographs grouped into series and accompanied by quotations from the photographer, which provide an insight into Picasso's intimacy and his creative processes.

It is complemented by a selection from the personal archive of Brigitte Baer (Paris, 1931 - 2005), a researcher of Picasso's graphic work whose abundant documentation - manuscripts, catalogues raisonnés published with annotations by the author and catalogue cards - were donated by her nephew, David Leclerc, in 2015.

With this intimate exhibition, the exhibition programme of Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa joins the Picasso Year, which in 2023 will be organised to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death.

A production of the Teatro Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa as part of the official section of the PHotoESPAÑA 2023 festival, in collaboration with the Museu Picasso and La Fábrica.