50 Years of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona: The Origins
Presented on occasion of the Museu Picasso's fiftieth anniversary, this documentary exhibition reveals one of the institution's identifying traits: its genesis. The show explains the connections between Picasso and Barcelona, the process that led to the museum's inception and its following opening.
The Museu Picasso in Barcelona is perhaps the most obvious sign of the artist's emotional ties to the city. Founded by express desire of Picasso, the museum concentrated the energies and desires of a whole community: the artist's personal secretary and great friend Jaume Sabartés, his wife Jacqueline, Barcelona society of the fifties that thought highly of Picasso, and Barcelona City Council, that managed to act with extreme discretion during the Franco regime in order to make Picasso's dream of a monographic museum in his beloved city come true. In order to tell the story through the documents, the exhibition is structured in three areas: Picasso's ties to Barcelona, the inception of the museum and its following foundation and opening.
Picasso’s Ties to Barcelona
Picasso’s close ties to Barcelona were forged at the end of the nineteenth century and remained strong right up until his death. Picasso was born in Malaga, but in 1895 he arrived with his family in Barcelona and stayed there until 1904. The artist lived and worked in Barcelona’s old town: the Ribera neighbourhood and surrounding area. During these years Picasso surrounded himself with artists and made friendships that would last a lifetime and forever link him to the city.
Planning the Museum
One name in particular stands out from among Picasso’s friends from his youth in Barcelona: Jaume Sabartés. Picasso met Sabartés in 1899 and it was the start of a friendship, of mutual understanding and admiration that would last a lifetime. In 1955 Sabartés, on a visit to Barcelona and on the advice of Picasso, started to pull strings so as to give his collection of works of the artist to the city of Barcelona, as a seed for creating the Museu Picasso. Sabartés counted on the support and help of the friends and admirers of the artist from Barcelona, who, led by the notary Raimon Noguera, worked together to present the proposal to the mayor of the city, Josep Maria Porcioles.
The constitution of the Museum
On July 27th 1960, by municipal agreement, the monographic museum “Pablo Ruiz Picasso” was constituted. In the same year rehabilitation works of the Berenguer de Aguilar palace began, to house the Museum. The works were very costly and long, and were supervised from France by Picasso himself. On March 9th 1963, with the necessary discretion that the moment required, the exhibition of the collection that Jaume Sabartés had given to the city was opened.
Chronicle of the exhibition
50 years of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona: Origins
On March 9th 1963, the Museu Picasso of Barcelona opened its doors to the public. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that date, the museum has planned the presentation of three small exhibitions that, during 2013, aim to explain to the visitors how the institution was created, how the collection was formed and how one of its main activities has been carried out: the organisation of temporary exhibitions.
This booklet makes an exhaustive journey through the history of the museum, from its characters and the circumstances that led to the birth of the ideas, to its realization with the inauguration of the Sabartés Collection in the Berenguer d'Aguilar palace and beyond that, until 1970, with the major donations of the artist which completed the initial collection. Illustrated with interesting images, many of which unseen before, the reader will be able to find out firsthand about the origins of a museum born from the will of the artist and deeply rooted in the city of Barcelona.
