Rafael Inglada, poet and biographer of Picasso, has gathered in this work twenty-five interviews with the painter from Malaga between 1913 and 1971, material that was kept in different newspaper archives around the world. The publication begins with a prologue by the director of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Emmanuel Guigon, who points out the value of "this anthology for several reasons. The first: until now there has been no publication that brings together all these texts". The second: "The reader will have the opportunity to discover in these conversations the extraordinary lucidity and the solid reflections of Picasso, in particular, the different ways in which the painter approaches his works, his life trajectory or the current events of each moment".
The interviews were granted mainly to French and American media, and were translated by Irene Alcántara Infante, Judit Cusidó, José Jesús Fornieles Alférez and the aforementioned Rafael Inglada. They largely correspond to Picasso's mature years and all of them allow access to Picasso's world, his reflections and, above all, his opinions about art and the artists of the time: Matisse, Braque, Vlaminck, Léger, Derain, Dalí or Solana. References to writers such as Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob or José Bergamín show the facets of Picasso beyond the painter, a man who understood and analyzed his environment and was up to date with currents, trends and ideologies.
Art, artists, politics or life in general are some of the elements shown in this compilation. There are also touches of his daily life, his facet as a ceramist, sculptor, draftsman, engraver, and references to small family matters. All this allows us to consider Rafael Inglada's work as a great contribution to the literature on the painter from Malaga.
Sources:
Editorial Confluencias: https://www.editorialconfluencias.com/producto/picasso/
Málaga Hoy: https://www.malagahoy.es/ocio/Picasso-si-mismo_0_1518148739.html