The galleries that make up the display in the Palacio de Buenavista have been organised to focus on thematic issues that are important aspects of Picasso’s aesthetic legacy. Among these are his relationship with Málaga and the unlimited versatility of his artistic talent; his sensitivity to injustice and towards those who suffered social marginalisation; a sense of origins, the deep-rooted ties of the family and the importance in his painting of the circle of closely linked people and familiar objects from his everyday life; the historical importance of Picasso as the creator of Cubism and inventor of images that are syntheses of multiple viewpoints, both formal and conceptual; his way of seeing the classic subjects and themes of art history such as the portrait, still life, landscape and nude; and the profound relationship of respect, inspiration and competition that he maintained with the great masters of art. Other galleries stress the importance of Picasso’s studio, a physical and symbolic space transformed into a crucial setting where numerous relationships unfold, of curiosity, veneration, desire, irony, violence and animosity between the painter and model, setting up a mirroring process between the observer and the observed. Finally, some galleries focus on the artist’s remarkable ability to discover processes and invent supports that would be groundbreaking for the history of visual forms.

The Collection spans eight decades of Picasso’s career. It conveys the rigour and creative powers of an artist who is essential for an understanding of Western art. It also gives concrete form to Picasso’s desire to offer his native city some of the fruits of his great gifts.

Cover (detail) WOMAN WITH RAISED ARMS Paris, 1936Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Inside (detail) JACQUELINE SEATED Paris, 8 October 1954Gift of Christine Ruiz-Picasso

© Of the texts: the authors

© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2015

© Photography: Eric Baudouin / Marc Domage

Equipo Gasull / Rafael Lobato Palacio de Buenavista C/ San Agustín, 8. 29015 Málaga, España

General information: (34) 902 44 33 77 Switchboard: (34) 952 12 76 00

E-mail: info@mpicassom.org www.museopicassomalaga.org

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ACROBATParis, 1930Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

COMPOSITIONJuan-les-Pins, 1920Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

This work is one of a series of still lifes that Picasso produced in the summer of 1920. The deliberately “bad” execution alternates between opaque sections (the clarinet) and transparent ones (the fruit bowl and piece of music, which are drawn directly on the canvas), while the restrained palette, reduced to white, grey and grey-brown tones, recalls Cubist practice, emphasised by the multiple and contradictory viewpoints from which the objects are seen. The effect of

Whenever Picasso came up with an image for a new woman in his life, he picked out those features which, for him, conveyed both her physical characteristics and also her temperament.Here Picasso maintained his interest in breaking up the visual and tactile experience so that the depth expressed through the background colours reveals that the painting is a material object as well as an image.

JACQUELINE SEATEDParis, 8 October 1954Gift of Christine Ruiz-Picasso

The artist began his activity in the age-old medium of ceramics at the Madoura factory in the ancient pottery centre of Vallauris where he and Françoise Gilot acquired a villa in 1948. In Picasso’s hands this traditional type of everyday, anonymous art represented a challenge to explore critically the notions of decoration and use. He was attracted to the factory, with its old buildings and traditional wood-fired kilns, and to the opportunities and facilities offered by the owners

INSECTVallauris, 1951Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso

This still life combines various objects to create two different assemblages. The foot and neck of the vase are created from ceramic elements, the body from a teapot, and the handle from a metal clamp. Standing in the vase are two flowers studded with nails. On the other side of the base is a cake plate, also made with ceramic elements, on which Picasso modelled some cakes. The artist’s skill at revealing visual analogies between dissimilar materials – nails and petals, clay and pastry cakes –

VASE OF FLOWERS AND PLATE OF CAKESVallauris, 1951Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

OLGA KHOKHLOVA IN A MANTILLABarcelona, 1917Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

Picasso was invited by Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets russes to design the sets and costumes for the ballet Parade, and in February 1917 went to Rome where he met the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova. The Ballets russes subsequently came to Spain and Olga decided to remain in Barcelona with Picasso despite her promising career with the company. Picasso introduced her to his family as his fiancée and painted this oil – the first known depiction of the young Olga - to mark their engagement.

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MOTHER AND CHILDFontainebleau, 1921Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

Picasso adapted his models to the canons of Antiquity and classicism, while imbuing the theme of motherhood with an archetypal quality. The monumental size of the figures and their sculptural nature are emphasised here through the predominant grey and white tones in the background. The impression of relief is further highlighted by the use of thick brushstrokes and the nuances of black that make the

HEAD OF A MAN WITH ZIG-ZAGS IN PINK AND GREENMougins, 1965Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte

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In the winter of 1929 Picasso returned to the subject of acrobats found in his Rose Period, painting six variations on this theme. The limbs of this Acrobat, which are out of proportion and lack volume, are contained by the moulding of the wooden panel. The curious positioning of the figure conveys a sense of endless rotation, which may suggest the idea of turning the actual work around, and this painting can in fact be rotated and viewed from all four sides. The tension created by the thick black

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The figure is defined through a minimum number of brushstrokes consisting of strong blue lines and patches of black. The pink and green create the light and shade on the face while the bluish-green middle tones complete and harmonise the overall composition. This is certainly not a self-portrait, but the model’s dark eyes suggest the young Picasso. The restrained approach and

THE COLLECTIONTHROUGH TEN ARTWORKS

MUSKETEER WITH SWORDVauvenargues or Mougins, 28 January 1972Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso

Picasso’s musketeers are direct descendants from Spain’s golden age. As an old man, the artist had in his possession a number of seventeenth and eighteenth-century editions, including works by Góngora, Don Quixote, and a copy of La Celestina from 1601, in addition to several tomes on the history of Spanish literature and, in particular, on the traditions of bullfighting. Painting had seemingly ceased to be a discipline or even a challenge for the artist. Eight decades had

shadows deeper and accentuate the volumes. The result looks back to Renoir, Cézanne and even to Synthetic Cubism.

accumulation, which leads the eye from the smallest object to the largest and from the palest to the most intensely coloured, is an illusionistic device frequently employed for theatrical sets. The numerous suggestions of depth are compressed by the oval shape of the frame, which suggests the form of a circular window or a telescopic mirror.

outline in opposition to the light, airy white of the figure creates a contrast with the dense grey of the background and emphasises the figure’s weightlessness. The grotesque body is gripped by the contortions of the dance.

economy of means convey the force of the sitter’s character.

is once again convincingly evident in this work.

The subject of a woman in a mantilla first appeared in Picasso’s work in 1899 and links the artist to the tradition of the great Spanish Old Masters. Picasso used a small embroidered tablecloth with a fringe to stand in for a real mantilla, a decision that conveys his desire to depict his fiancée dressed in the Spanish style.

WOMAN WITH RAISED ARMSParis, 1936Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso

Picasso met the photographer Dora Maar in the early summer of 1936, and she soon became his constant companion. She can be recognised as the inspiration for the half-length figure portrayed in Woman with Raised Arms. Her dark cropped hair flows from behind her head, as if she were reclining and the artist were painting her from above. In the United States, the rural world was being devastated by the Great Depression at this time. In Germany, the exhibition Degenerate Art was about to open,

taking the form of a condemnation of modern art. Soon after this, Picasso painted Guernica (1937).

Suzanne and Georges Ramié, which allowed him to undertake new experiments and invent new techniques.

passed since he first devoted himself to art.