To what extent did Picasso contribute with his work to constructing a social, economic, political and cultural history? How far did these historical factors determine our understanding of the artist? These are just some of the questions that will be asked between today and Thursday 11th October, at the IV International Picasso Congress. This year’s edition, “Picasso and History”, explores new ways of understanding the artist’s work, based on research into its historical context and the repercussions of his work in that context.

This morning, the speakers and delegates were welcomed by the Junta de Andalucía’s Cultural Secretary, Miguel Ángel Vázquez Bermúdez; the chairman of the MPM Executive Committee, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso; the president of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, Laurent Le Bon; and the artistic director of MPM, José Lebrero Stals. The participants’ presence here turns the city of Picasso’s birth into the focal point of the international academic community of scholars and researchers into the artist’s work. Over the next three days, more than 20 papers will be read to the audience of almost 200 scholars who have arrived in Málaga from the United States, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Turkey.

The nine decades of Picasso’s life took place over several troubled periods of modern history. Each day of the congress will therefore be devoted to a specific period: Picasso before the First World War, Picasso between the Wars, and Picasso after the Second World War.

Prostitution, Fascism, Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods, the avant-garde movements, the impact of his work in South America and the Arab world, the period between the two World Wars, and Picasso’s relationship with the Prado and Louvre museums, are just some of the subjects of the papers that will be read in the MPM Auditorium by experts that include Charles W. Haxthausen, Emeritus Professor of Art History Williams College, (MA); María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco, Associate Professor of Art History at Universidad Complutense, Madrid; Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at École Normale Supérieure, Paris; and David Cottington, Professor of Art History, Kingston University London, amongst others. The scientific board is chaired by Pepe Karmel, Professor of Art History at New York University; and formed by Emilie Bouvard, Conservator at Musée national Picasso-Paris; Emmanuel Guigon y Malén Gual, Director and Conservator at Museu Picasso Barcelona; José Lebrero, Artistic Director of Museo Picasso Málaga; and Eugenio Carmona, Tenured Professor of Art history at Universidad de Málaga.

These international congresses on the life and work of Pablo Picasso are the fruit of a project set up in 2014 by Musée national Picasso-Paris. Following its previous editions in Paris and Barcelona, the congress now comes to Museo Picasso Málaga under the sponsorship of Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA) and Fundación Unicaja, and with the collaboration of the Embassy of France in Spain.

The IV International Picasso Congress is one of the highpoints of Museo Picasso Málaga’s Fifteenth Anniversary celebrations, along with the recent opening of the exhibition Picasso’s South. Andalusian References.