The Museu Picasso of Barcelona

The Museu Picasso of Barcelona is the clearest testimony to the esteem that Picasso felt for the city. The Museum would not have opened its doors in 1963 on Carrer de Montcada if it had not been, on the one hand, for the will of the artist himself and, on the other, for the determination and commitment of several people: firstly, his personal secretary and great friend Jaume Sabartés, whose Picasso collection was the original core of the Museum's collection; the artist's wife, Jacqueline Picasso; members of Barcelona's civil society who were admirers and friends of Picasso, especially the Gaspar and Gili families; and, ultimately, Barcelona City Council. But the history of the Museum would not be the same without the key date of 1970, the year in which Picasso decided to donate to the city of Barcelona all the works that had until then been kept by his family at their home on Passeig de Gràcia.

This gesture —a public and voluntary donation— demonstrates Picasso's deep desire for his work to form part of the collective heritage. The Museum, in this sense, is an institution that was created for the public and belongs to the citizens of Barcelona and Catalonia. That is why one of the Museum's current priorities is to put visitors and local society at the centre, opening up with an inclusive and participatory vocation. Picasso's legacy must not only be preserved, but must be shared, interpreted and activated continuously so that it remains significant for present and future generations.

The collection, made up of around 5,000 pieces, is the most complete from Picasso's formative period, making the Museum a reference centre for the study of the artist's early work. In this regard, it highlights an exceptional set of works produced in Málaga, A Coruña, Barcelona, Madrid and Horta de Sant Joan, which bear witness to both the artist's solid academic training and his strong artistic personality and incipient creative freedom. In addition, the collection is also rich in works from his youth, which demonstrate Picasso's rapid assimilation of the most avant-garde trends prevailing in Barcelona at the turn of the century and in Paris during the Belle Époque. Also noteworthy are the set of works belonging to the so-called Blue Period, the oils he painted in Barcelona in 1917 and the complete series of Las Meninas, in which he made his personal interpretation of Velázquez's painting of the same name. Without forgetting the remarkable collection of graphic works and the set of 41 ceramics that Jacqueline Picasso donated in 1982.

Since 2011, the Museum has counted on the annex building of the Knowledge and Research Centre, which houses the archive and library and where a rich set of documentary, photographic and bibliographical collections about the artist and his work are kept.