Between 1946 and the late 60s, Picasso relocated to the South of France, close to his Mediterranean roots, where he ventured further into ceramic work. It was to become a path of major artistic discovery for Picasso and he infused the ancient craft with fresh life, making it fully his own. For this reason, Museo Picasso Málaga has adapted one of the rooms in the Palacio de Buenavista to house some of the ceramics held in the museum’s permanent collection. Room 12 now offers visitors the chance to admire nineteen ceramic works and three paintings that Picasso produced between 1931 and 1962. The room also shows a digital version of the Carnet de La Californie sketchbook, with 22 drawings in ink, pencil, graphite, charcoal and gouache on vellum, which Picasso made in Cannes in 1956. It mainly comprises portraits drawn in the studio at La Californie and sketches from nature. There is a large 1947 photograph by Michel Sima of Picasso beside a clay vase from the museum’s collection that is also on display in this room. It presides over this multi-purpose space, which was designed by Frade Arquitectos and can also be used to host conferences and special events.

Picasso’s work as a ceramicist can be viewed as an extension of his work as a sculptor, painter and etcher. Clay plates illustrated with goats’ heads; human faces and fauns; jars shaped like owls and insects; plaques, tiles and bricks, are displayed alongside three oil paintings that recreate themes that are present throughout Picasso’s work. The artist took advantage of the volume of the clay pieces to paint them, giving them new meanings, while their original use remains recognizable. For instance, in Owl with a Faun’s Head (1947) the spout and handles of the jug become the beak and wings of the bird, while the handles are also the horns of the faun. He transformed a typical Provençal “Gus” water jar into Insect (1951), by attaching six handles to the sides and painting eyes, legs and wings on them. A connoisseur of traditional Spanish pottery, Pablo Picasso worked on artisan pieces and even on objects and leftovers that were rejected by the potteries themselves: jars, plates, tiles, jugs, tiles, trays… He painted on them to create a unique combination of the traditional and the modern.

New book: Dialogues with Picasso. Collection 2020-2023

In June, Museo Picasso Málaga presented a new selection of works by Picasso, as the result of the three-year agreement between the Consejería de Cultura y Patrimonio de la Junta de Andalucía and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA), under which 162 works by Picasso will be added over the next three years to the 233 in the museum’s current collection. Now, after the summer months, MPM is presenting a book that will be essential reading to fully understand the artistic features and most prominent research on the works by Picasso in the MPM collection.

Dialogues with Picasso. Collection 2020-2023 contains introductions written by the three curators responsible for the renewal: Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, president of the MPM Executive Council and of Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA); José Lebrero Stals, artistic director of MPM; and Prof. Pepe Karmel, from the USA. The book also contains essays by experts on Picasso: “Body Language: the Human Figure in Picasso’s Drawings, 1906-1913” by Pepe Karmel, professor at the art department of New York University; “Picasso’s Minotaurs” by Michael Fitzgerald, professor of fine art and director of the art history programme at Trinity College, Hartford, CT; and “Picasso and the Heritage of Traditional Ceramics” by Salvador Haro González, professor of painting at the Faculty of Fine Art, Universidad de Málaga. The book also contains observations on the artworks in the collection from Javier Cuevas del Barrio, non-tenured teacher at Universidad de Málaga; Cécile Godefroy, art historian and curator, Paris; Anna Jozefacka, independent researcher, New York; Luise Mahler, researcher at the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Eduard Vallès, conservator of modern and contemporary art, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.

The book is an embossed hardback edition, with the manageable dimensions of 17x22cm. It has been published in both Spanish and English and has 456 pages, with over 450 colour illustrations. It is available to buy now at the Museo Picasso Bookshop, price 39€. To order, go to lalibreria@museopicassomalaga.org.