Art & Culture: Pablo Picasso anniversary

A YEAR OF PABLO PICASSO ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

Above “Untitled (Picasso)” 2011 © FABA Photo: Pablo Asenjo and © Richard Prince and Richard Prince Studio LLC OPPOSITE PAGE: Above Left “Portrait of Michel Leiris” 1976 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Bertrand Prévost and © The Estate of Francis Bacon, VEGAP, Málaga 2022 Above Centre – “Construction in Rectangles” 1955 © FABA Photo and © David Smith, VAGA, New York / VEGAP, Málaga, 2022 Above Right – “Personage” Cannes, 1960 © FABA Photo: Marc Domage and © Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2022 Middle Row Left “Sylvette” Vallauris, 1954 © Fondation Hubert Looser, Zurich and © Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2022 Middle Row Right “Man Seated in an Armchair” Paris, 1915-1916 © FABA Photo: Hugard & Vanoverschelde and © Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2022 Bottom Left “Sleeping Dancer 3” 2021 © FABA Photo: Alessandro Wang and © Farah Atassi Bottom Right “Reclining Bather” Boisgeloup, 1931 © FABA Photo: Marc Domage and © Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2022

Celebrations will be two-fold this year as the Costa del Sol marks two major Pablo Picasso milestones. The Málaga-born artist (25 October 1881) died on 8 April 1973, and a series of cultural events are planned throughout the world to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. This year is also the 20th anniversary of the Museo Picasso Málaga, considered a key reference point in the capital’s transformation into a global hub of culture. Inaugurated on 27 October 2003, the museum has welcomed eight million visitors over the past two decades, offering a constantly changing program that includes both works by Picasso and other exhibitions. Supported by the generosity and close involvement of Christine, Bernard and Almine Ruiz-Picasso, and management backing by the Junta de Andalucía (regional government) and contributions by the museum’s patrons, directors and staff, the MPM is recognised as having brought about a qualitative shift in museology in Andalucía. In a news release announcing details of the celebrations, the museum noted that over the past 20 years it had launched “innovative museographical proposals, has regularly renewed its permanent collection and has organised exhibitions that have had a notable influence on contemporary cultural debate – events and projects of a type never previously organised in the region. “Furthermore, the MPM has devised an innovative and influential educational and mediation programme which has attracted and interacted with numerous sectors of the public while also forging links with the university world and with researchers through its seminars and encounters on an international level. “During this process of development and evolution as an institution, the MPM has been able to take on some of the characteristics of a ‘cultural centre’, not just through its organisation of activities but also due to its emphasis on social inclusion and focus on diversity.”

In addition to this ongoing mission, future plans for the MPM include the integration of cultural activity into the digital society, with the aim of creating joint activities with other museums and cultural institutions in Andalucía. “Already launched with the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Museo del Hospital

de los Venerables in Sevilla, this initiative has been extremely well received across all sectors of society.” In the meantime, the museum will be playing a key and active role in the international “Picasso Celebration 1973-2023” program, which comprises 50 exhibitions and events organised by cultural institutions of the European Union (16 exhibitions in Spain, 12 in France, two in Germany, and one in each of Belgium and Romania), two in Switzerland, one in Monaco, and seven in the United States. In Málága, the museum is planning two exhibitions: “Picasso: Matter and Body”, curated by Carmen Giménez, which will be on display from 9 May to 10 September 2023; and “The Echo of Picasso”, curated by Eric Troncy and to be held between 3 October 2023 and 24 March 2024. In parallel, the MPM’s permanent display will be renewed with two “Dialogue” proposals curated by Michael FitzGerald and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA). www.museopicassomalaga.org