The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, an initiative promoted by the Spanish and French governments that has paid tribute to the artist on the 50th anniversary of his death, closes with more than 6 million visitors in the 46 national and international exhibitions that have taken place since the end of 2022, until April this year.
The official program has brought together 34 relevant European museums, such as the Musée de l'Homme-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli in Italy, the Bode-Museum in Berlin or the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; along with 9 important North American centers such as the Metropolitan Museum, the MoMA in New York or the Art Institute of Chicago, with the fundamental role of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, the monographic museums of Antibes and Münster, the Museu Picasso Barcelona, the Museo Casa Natal Picasso and the Museo Picasso in Malaga.
ALMOST 3 MILLION VISITORS IN SPAIN ALONE
The program, whose official opening in Spain took place in September 2022 with a ceremony presided over by the King and Queen of Spain, together with the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Culture of Spain and France, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, began in June 2022 with the inauguration of 'Picasso-El Greco' at the Kunstmuseum Basel, in Basel (Switzerland).
The official program in Spain has presented 17 exhibition projects, accompanied by numerous activities including cycles, conferences and mediation activities, as well as a complementary program developed in Picasso's cities - Malaga, A Coruña, Barcelona and Madrid - which have been attended by almost 3 million visitors.
The commemoration has delved into lesser-known areas of Picasso's work, such as his facet as a sculptor through his collaboration with Julio Gonzalez at the MAPFRE Foundation; or the representation of the human body at the Picasso Museum in Malaga, which shortly after found its continuity at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. His production in ceramics was also shown in institutions such as the Museu del Disseny in Barcelona.
The Casa Natal in Malaga and the Museo de Belas de Artes in A Coruña, the cities of his childhood and early adolescence, respectively, influenced his artistic formation and evolution. The Museo Nacional del Prado, for its part, delved into the influence of El Greco in his analytical cubism, in collaboration with the Museo del Greco.
Other projects have studied Picasso's relationships that influenced his work. This was the framework of the exhibition at the Museu Picasso Barcelona, which focused on Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, one of the most important art dealers of the 20th century and a key figure in Picasso's artistic evolution. The first exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza dealt with the artistic collaboration with Chanel and later, in its second exhibition, showed a dialogue between the Malaga-born artist's production and the great masters such as Goya and El Greco.
The Joan Miró Foundation and the Museu Picasso in Barcelona organized for the first time a joint exhibition in two institutions on the close friendship between the two artists.
The Celebration also made room for young artists who reinterpreted Picasso's work at La Casa Encendida, while the Picasso Museum in Malaga showed the influence of the artist's legacy on contemporary art in its second exhibition as part of the commemoration.
The State Museums, under the Ministry of Culture, organized as part of the cultural program of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the project 'PI©A$$o™' by Rogelio López Cuenca, which visited 10 museums throughout the Spanish territory: The National Museum and Research Center of Altamira, in Cantabria; the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology ARQVA, in Cartagena; the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts 'González Martí', in Valencia; the National Museum of Sculpture, in Valladolid; the National Museum of Roman Art, in Mérida; and, in Madrid, the National Museum of Decorative Arts, the Museum of Costume. CIPE, Museo Nacional del Romanticismo and Museo Cerralbo, which were joined by the Museo Fundación Lázaro Galdiano.
In addition to the exhibitions, museums and institutions in Spain also organized a wide range of activities, from theater and music cycles to forums, conferences and lectures on Picasso. Highlights included the film series 'Misterio Picasso' (1973-2023), organized by the Filmoteca Española and the Instituto Universitario del Cine Español Carlos III at the Cine Doré; and the 'Congreso Internacional Picasso desde los estudios culturales Sueño y mentira de España (1898-1922)', organized by the Museo Reina Sofía. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts of A Coruña organized lecture series to deepen the aspects developed in their exhibitions. In A Coruña, different cycles were held, such as 'Picasso through cinema' and 'Picasso and his cities'. The Museu Picasso Barcelona invited the public to get to know Picasso's poetry through Escritos 1935-1959, whose translation into Spanish, by Akal, was supported by the Spanish National Commission for the Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death.
RTVE contributed two documentaries on the artist's life, and RTVE Audio, in close collaboration with the National Commission and the Ministry of Culture, presented two podcasts and an audiobook on topics such as the arrival of 'Guernica' in Spain and his literary work.
INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM
The tribute to Picasso has built a large international network around the artist's work. Over the course of the event, 19 exhibitions have been organized in Europe and 10 in the United States, attracting more than 3 million visitors.
The Musée National Picasso-Paris, the main lender of Picasso's works to participating institutions and coordinator of the Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 outside Spain, presented a selection of masterpieces from its collection to which, with the collaboration of designer Paul Smith, it gave a visual context. In its second exhibition, the museum explored Picasso's work through the eyes of artist Sophie Calle. In addition, at the end of 2023, it organized, in collaboration with UNESCO, the international symposium in Paris that brought together all the protagonists of the project, including the commissioners of Spain, Carlos Alberdi, and France, Cécile Debray.
In France, the exhibitions covered topics such as the relationship between Picasso and Fernande Olivier, artist and wife of the artist, at the Musée de Montmartre, and the intellectual relationship that linked him to the poet Gertrude Stein in his invention of a new language, at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
The Musée Magnelli, Musée de la Céramique-Vallauris, delved into the period when the artist lived in the south of France and began experimenting with ceramics. In Antibes, the Musée Picasso exhibited some of his last paintings painted between 1969-1972. In Paris, the Musée de l'Homme-Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle showed the influence of prehistoric art on Picasso. For its part, the Palais Princier in Monaco provided an insight into the heritage of the classical world throughout his artistic career, from his early Italian travels to his Mediterranean sojourns, which could be contextualized in the exhibition at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli that narrated Picasso's trip to Italy in 1917 and his fascination with the excavations at Pompeii.
The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris presented an extensive tour of Picasso's career, through nearly 800 drawings, from his initial studies to sketches and final works. Other institutions addressed various themes, such as the influences of prominent artists on Picasso's work. Some examples are that of Poussin at the Musée de Beaux-Arts in Lyon (France); that of Goya, at the Musée Goya in Castres (France); or that of El Greco at the Kunstmuseum Basel, in Basel (Switzerland).
The United States registered the largest number of exhibitions in this Celebration, behind only Spain and France. In New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum traveled to Picasso's beginnings during his stay in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art delved into the Cubist language in a first exhibition, while in a second one it showed the studies on the unfinished decoration of the Hamilton Easter Field residence, in Brooklyn.
MoMA analyzed the works Picasso created between July and September 1921, when he resided in Fontainebleau, France. The Hispanic Society focused on Picasso's interest in Spanish literature. The Gagosian Gallery, meanwhile, hosted a traveling exhibition of the Palais de la Porte Dorée-Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration de Paris project on Picasso's status as a permanent immigrant.
The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 also approached the figure of Picasso from a feminist perspective at the Brookyn Museum in New York; while The Mint Museum in North Carolina and The Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio revealed one of the least explored themes of Picasso's painting, his landscapes. The Art Institute of Chicago shed light on the stories of those who supported the artist throughout his life, such as his dealer Daniel Henry Kahnweiler and the renowned artist Georges Braque.
In Germany, the Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster dedicated an extensive exhibition to Fernande Olivier and Françoise Gilot, the only two women in Picasso's life who left written records of their experiences with the artist.
The Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal and the Sprengel Museum in Hannover presented a joint exhibition to contrast the work of Picasso and Max Beckmann. For its part, the Bode Museum in Berlin highlighted the influence of Spanish art on Picasso's work, with works from the Berggruen Museum.
The Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Belgium offered a dialogue between his work and the history of abstract art. The Museum of Recent Art of Bucharest (MARe), in Romania, reflected on Picasso's artistic evolution and his influence on contemporary Romanian creation, while in Switzerland, the Fondation Beyeler presented a selection of the latest paintings and sculptures that Picasso created in the last decade of his career.
PICASSO CELEBRATION 1973-2023
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso on April 8, 2023, the governments of Spain and France agreed on the first joint celebration of his work and artistic legacy in France, Spain and internationally.
This collaboration has been articulated in a bi-national commission that has brought together the cultural and diplomatic administrations of the two countries, coordinating the joint actions of the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs of France and Spain and under the impulse of the Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Spanish National Commission for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso, which has the support of Telefónica.
Born in Malaga on October 25, 1881, and died in the French town of Mougins on April 8, 1973, Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous painters in the history of Western art. His expressive, free and multiform language continues to influence contemporary art and reflection.
The objective of the program, conceived by renowned cultural institutions in Europe and the United States, has been the historiographic analysis of the different facets of Picasso's work.
The 1973-2023 Picasso Celebration has highlighted the career of an essentially European artist who, from a deep knowledge of the heritage and principles of tradition and an understanding of classicism as an ethical value, projected internationally such universal symbols as Guernica and was a key artist in the construction of the language and look of twentieth-century art.