By Jared Teitel
Between the crevices of the stone-built Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, Catalonia, lies an exhibit housing the work of one of the world’s most renowned and respected old masters: Pablo Ruiz Picasso.
The Museu Picasso, or the Picasso Museum, was erected in 1963 as a celebration of the paintings, sketches, sculptures and collections that defined the artist’s career until his death in 1973. You are taken into a time machine that documents the influence of Barcelona on a poor painter’s son from Málaga.
A tour guide presents "Man with Fruit Bowl" to a crowd of visitors. The 1917 painting is a product of Picasso's Cubist revolution.
Pablo Picasso: A Brief History
A protégé of his father, Picasso started with drawings and paintings that soon developed into advanced work upon enrolling at La Llotja School of Fine Arts in 1895. He received his first distinction just two years later in Madrid for his painting "Science and Charity," which takes inspiration from the death of his sister.
It quickly became clear to Piccaso’s mother and father that they had a child prodigy on their hands. They pushed their son to pursue further training in Madrid, where Picasso ultimately dismissed the constricting nature of school in favor of free expression. He began constructing work based on his observation of local restaurants, residents and other cultural artifacts around him.
This tactic continued in his move back to Barcelona, where he frequently took to the Els Quatre Gats – The Four Cats – café and constructed portraits of colleagues he met in the city. And today, the Picasso Museum has come to house several of these fifty portraits first shown at the Barcelona Exhibition in early 1900.
But it is the Els Quatre Gats that holds particular importance for the foundation of the Museu Picasso altogether. Here, Picasso met and befriended an aspiring young sculptor by the name of Jaume Sabartés. As his eventual secretary, Sabartes developed such a deep companionship with Picasso that he sought a way to owe the artist a permanent commemoration.
Donating an array of Picasso’s works to the city of Barcelona, Sabartés paved way for the construction of a museum that has since showcased more than 4000 masterpieces passed down by family and the awe-inspiring virtuoso himself.
The portrait of "Jaume Sabartés with Ruff and Bonnet" painted by Picasso on October 22, 1939. Sabartés donated the piece to the city of Barcelona in 1962.
Museu Picasso
Taking you through five buildings across Carrer de Montcada, the Picasso Museum begins with a look into the artist’s early sketches as an up-and-coming talent growing up in the coastal regions of Spain. Lining a grey-plastered wall are hundreds to thousands of sketch drawings detailing ambiguous human figures, patterns and sceneries.
A wall of sketches created by Picasso through his formative years in Barcelona and Madrid.
But do not be remiss to think Picasso’s early years of art consisted only of such simple pencil/paper sketches. Adjacent to the wall will you find one of the first paintings put together at the ripe age of fifteen: "Mountains of Málaga." In it, he blends rich browns, greens and greys to landscape the earthy topography of his childhood home – a skill learned while a student at La Llojta.
Two separate versions of "Mountains of Málaga," which Picasso worked on in the summer of 1896. He later gifted the paintings to Museu Picasso in 1970.
Stepping deeper into the museum opens the wandering eye to the evolution of Picasso’s artistry as canvases grow larger and illustrations become more intricate.
In the very next room lies "Science and Charity," where the 6.5 by 8-foot oil painting makes an image of an ill man being physically treated by a doctor and emotionally provided for by a nun inescapable.
A tourist examines Science and Charity, painted in Barcelona between January and April 1897. The piece was a gift from Picasso in 1970.
The journey through Picasso’s artistic development becomes abundantly clear as you gradually approach his work exploring cubist elements. Across the museum are rooms and galleries with frames holding images that flaunt Picasso’s triangles, quadrilaterals and other one-dimensional shapes imitating real-world phenomena.
His decade-long transition into Analytical Cubism, in particular, began as a reaction against traditional stylings of realism and perspective first established by the Renaissance era. Here, Picasso used geometric patterns to evoke everyday, arguably superficial concepts and items like fruit.
Cubist influences prevalent in "Jacqueline," a 1957 portrait of his final wife whom he married in early 1927.
A collection that may strike particular interest with you in your visit to Museu Picasso is "Las Meninas" (Maidens of Honor), which is among the last exhibits you should expect to encounter in the museum. Exploring painter Diego Velazquez's portrayal of ladies of honor tending to the King of Spain’s young daughter, Picasso repetitively deconstructs and reinterprets the image across nearly fifty canvases using a Cubist-inspired, childlike approach.
A tourist observes four pieces from Picasso's Las Meninas collection created on October 24, 1957.
Museu Picasso attendant Carla, who has learned a great deal about the Spanish artist through working at the museum and studying humanities at university, can recall Picasso’s famous adage expressing the often unrealized difficulty of simplistic art.
“He needed a lot of years to learn to paint like a kid, but he only needed [a few] years to learn how to paint like a big, classical painter,” she said.
Picasso's childlike style evident in "Smoker with Green Cigarette," remade across five featured canvases in 1964.
Although intrigued by Picasso’s attempt to find beauty in art that lacks attention to detail, Carla can admit that she is drawn to the more sophisticated and surrealist stylings of native artists like Salvador Dalí.
“I like more classical art, but I appreciate contemporary art too,” she said. “I love landscapes.”
The Blue Project
In full transparency, I do not recommend purchasing a ticket to Museu Picasso if Picasso is who you came to see. This is because not everything in the museum is completely his work, which was quite a pleasant surprise.
The Picasso Blue Project combines the efforts of researchers in recent years to expose the hidden messages behind Picasso’s most revered work with digital imaging and high-resolution photography.
Until September 4 of this year can you observe sketches, patterns, colors and stories never before visible to the naked eye in several pieces Picasso created between 1901 to 1904.
The development is a nod to the Blue Period, a time when Picasso lacked the finances to acquire advanced tools and colors that would aid in the creation of elaborate pieces.
Nonetheless, his resourcefulness has been made apparent thanks to the Blue Project’s exposure of the complexity within some of Picasso’s most simplistic work.
The Picasso Blue Project employs screening techniques (left) to reveal the color schemes of the various food items and kitchen utensils depicted in one piece (right).
A Global Impact
Although shrouded by the Cathedral of Barcelona, cafés and Catalan performers that excite the personality of Old Town, the Museu Picasso has not failed to make its mark on a civilization beyond Barcelona.
Jamie and Erin, tourists based in the United Kingdom, were determined to set out 1300 miles to the museum after the former’s mother made the recommendation.
“We can appreciate good art so we thought we’d come and have a look to see what the hype is about,” Jamie said.
Possessing just a print copy of a Picasso line drawing at home, Jamie and Erin sought to experience a whole new side of the artist. And that they did as they encountered oil-on-canvas originals at every turn like "Science and Charity," "Las Meninas," "The Pigeons" and countless caricatures.
The Pigeon Room is one of the final sections of Museu Picasso. It features pieces from "The Pigeons" collection, which Picasso started in 1957 after taking inspiration from the pigeons perched upon the balcony of his California home.
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