José Carlos Rodríguez I
Padrón (A Coruña), (EFE).- The history of friendship between Pablo Picasso and Camilo José Cela is engraved in each of the objects, texts and drawings that were dedicated and that can be seen in the exhibition “Picasso Alive. The Picasso legacy of Camilo José Cela”, which the foundation of the Galician Nobel laureate inaugurated this week in Padrón.
More than 40 pieces reveal the intense relationship between the two geniuses -one of art, the other of literature- and the cultural exchange that took place between them at the end of the 50s and that lasted until the death of the painter from Malaga. .
It was July 31, 1958 when Camilo José Cela traveled to Cannes (France) bound for the villa “La Californie”, without an appointment, in order to see Picasso.
Encouraged by Joan Miró, also a painter, Cela wanted to propose a tribute project to Picasso in the magazine “Papeles de Son Armadans”, which the Galician directed in Palma de Mallorca.
Although her first attempts to contact Picasso were unsuccessful, it was ultimately David Douglas Duncan, Picasso’s official photographer, who helped Cela set up an appointment with the painter, which took place on August 1.
Picasso and Cela, the friendship of two geniuses of art
From that encounter, between painter and writer, a large number of collaborations arose, favored both by Cela’s pictorial facet and by Picasso’s interest in poetry.
The smiling face that appears on the cover of that extraordinary issue of “Papeles de Son Armadans” was the seal of a friendship that would last several more years. Also the bottle of “Machaquito” anise that they drank that August 1 and that, at the end, Picasso dedicated to Cela as a souvenir.
Coming solely from the funds of the Camilo José Cela Foundation, the exhibition traces the friendship between the two artists through more than 40 pieces including drawings, engravings, texts, photographs and various objects that both gave each other for years.
On one of his visits to “La Californie”, Cela proposed to Picasso the idea of creating a story around the painter’s drawings. However, the roles were reversed.
Poems by the painter illustrated by the writer that lead to the publication of “Poemas y escritos” in 1960, followed by “Sheaf of fables without love” in 1962, this time without reversing the roles.
Curated by Lourdes Regueiro, coordinator of cultural activities of the Camilo José Cela Foundation, together with Iván Rodríguez, the exhibition of texts and drawings and that exchange between these two geniuses of art and literature can be visited until May 31, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death.
