The 703,807 visitor total in 2019 is a 4% increase on the number who visited the gallery in 2018. Picasso’s outstanding and prolific work, the quality and variety of the exhibition programme, the variety and appeal of its cultural offerings and its diverse educational programme are all elements that, along with the rise in tourist numbers in Málaga over the last few years, serve to promote the museum’s name and reputation, resulting in an increase in the number of visitors who come to the gallery from all over the world.

Committed to education and culture

The purpose of Museo Picasso Málaga is to promote and support artistic creation, research and education on forms of artistic expression, the conservation of cultural heritage and the study of art. It also encourages intercultural dialogue and understanding through art, by contributing to social cultural development and fostering respect for cultural heritage. Its educational work therefore has an essential role to play. Last year a total of 27,575 people took part in the museum’s educational activities and included participants in the accessibility project that the gallery has developed alongside “la Caixa” Foundation. This year, various institutions, associations and NGOs cooperated with the educational programme, including La Noria- Fuente social, Málaga University; the Pushkin Museum Art Historians’ Club, Moscow; Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the Blanca Marsillach Valera theatre company; Granada Science Park; the Spanish Red Cross; Diputación de Málaga; CEAR: Proyecto Hombre; the Roman Theatre in Málaga, amongst numerous others.

As for the museum’s cultural activities, many people attended lectures, seminars, screenings, talks and roundtables, as well as concerts of chamber music, jazz and flamenco, poetry readings and films. Contributors to this cultural programme included Ateneo de Málaga; Carnaval de Málaga; Centre Pompidou Málaga; Centro Andaluz de las Letras; the Russian State Museum Collection Málaga; Festival de Málaga. Cine en Español; Fundación SGAE; Institut Français de Sevilla; Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer; La Térmica and Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga.

The MPM Permanent Collection and the temporary exhibitions

Along with their interest in viewing Picasso’s work in the Museo Picasso Málaga’s permanent collection, a large proportion of visitors went to the three 2019 temporary exhibitions: Olga Picasso, jointly organized with Musée Picasso Paris, later transferred to CaixaForum Madrid; Bruce Nauman. Rooms, Bodies, Words, produced by Museo Picasso Málaga in collaboration with “la Caixa” Foundation and, more recently, Calder-Picasso, which was sponsored by Fundación Unicaja, with lighting by ERCO, and which runs until 2nd February.

In early 2020, Museo Picasso Málaga’s exhibition programme will open with Genealogies of Art, or the history of art as visual art (26th February – 31st May 2020), in which authors and artists from the 17th to the 21st century visually present the history of art via genealogical trees, allegories, charts and diagrams. One of these diagrams is also represented in three dimensions, with works by Picasso, Cézanne, Matisse, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Brancusi, amongst others. In the summer, Miquel Barceló. Metamorphosis (22nd June – 27th September 2020), will exhibit a large selection of ceramics, oils and watercolours that will once again display the inexhaustible energy and keen experimental vein of an artist who has created a highly personal, original and complex body of work. In autumn 2020, to showcase 20th-century women artists and following on from previous shows devoted to Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Hilma af Klint and Louise Bourgeois, as well as other exhibitions such as Women Surrealists. We are Completely Free, MPM will be presenting the exhibition Meret Oppenheim. Reflection of an era (19th October 2020 – 7th February 2021). Then, the spring of next year, will bring a new layout for the permanent collection, with the renewal of the current commodatum loan agreement with Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA). It will offer new ways to look at Pablo Picasso’s art, learn about his artistic circle and consider the impact of his work on later periods.

Patrons and Sponsors

This year Museo Picasso Málaga once again wishes to express our deepest gratitude for the support of our Council of Patrons member, Radio Televisión de Andalucía, and our Board of Patrons members Vocento, Grupo Joly, La Opinión de Málaga and Fundación Aena. We would also like to thank Fundación Endesa for its sponsorship of the lighting of Picasso’s works, as well Caixabank and Fundación Unicaja for their exhibition sponsorship.