Jose Oliva |
Barcelona (EFE) in the artist from Malaga.
In the exhibition, along with the 16 ceramic pieces by the artist, the first large collective donation he made to Barcelona, you can see more than 80 pieces, which are a selection of those that Picasso himself was able to see in the exhibition “La Céramique Espagnole, du XIIIè siècle à nos jours” at the Palais Miramar in Cannes (France).
Isabel Cendoya, curator of the exhibition together with Isabel Fernández del Moral, explained to EFE that “Picasso’s will” underlines “the importance of these pieces in Picasso’s ceramic work and, for the first time, a dialogue is established with the pieces donated by the painter from Malaga, and the context of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his death was an auspicious moment”.
Four thematic sections
The show is organized into four thematic sections, each with its own narrative, beginning with the first, entitled “But is it possible that they did this before me?”, Picasso’s famous exclamation upon seeing the selection of ceramics in the Cannes exhibition.
This discovery and the meeting with Lluís Maria Llubià, the ceramics curator at the time, led to the donation of the ceramic works to the Barcelona Art Museums, on the condition that they be exhibited within six months.
In a second section, the Cannes exhibition is recreated with a selection of works from the Design Museum’s collection to convey the influence it had on Picasso and his work.
Among the pieces exhibited here are pieces of Spanish ceramics from medieval times to works from the 20th century, among them a basin from Paterna from the 14th century, which was exhibited in Cannes and which left Spain for the first time at that time, in which it was inspired Picasso on April 4, 1957 to make a Spanish plate with the representation of the sardana and a barred shield that occupies the center of the plate.
You can also see a 13th-14th century fountain and another 14th-century basin, both from Paterna, and a 14th-century plate from Barcelona, and other Manises specimens from the 17th-18th centuries and from the Real Fábrica de Loza Fina and L’Alcora Porcelain (1749-1858), as well as a catalog of the 1957 Cannes exhibition.
The fundamental role of Lluís Maria Llubià
Under the title “History of a donation”, a third section presents the documentation compiled by the curators related to Picasso’s donation and the fundamental role played by Lluís Maria Llubià.
Among the outstanding documents is a newspaper from Llubià, entitled “Activities of the ceramologist”, in which he details the entire process to obtain the donation of Picasso’s works, the painter’s letter in which he establishes as a condition for the donation that they be exhibited within six months together with a selection of the works he had seen in Cannes, and in addition, reproductions of photographs of Picasso’s ceramic exhibitions at different times and places.
A final space establishes a direct dialogue between the 16 donated pieces and a selection from the museum’s collection of historic ceramics: “This dialogue speaks of Picasso’s knowledge of the technique and symbology of traditional ceramics, but also of how, based on forms and processes of the past, embodied his concerns and his iconographic repertoire, using ceramics as another support for his artistic production”.
According to Cendoya, “these Picassian ceramics summarize all the great themes that Picasso dealt with in his career, from the circus, to the painter and the model, from mythological animals to fish, including bullfighting or the family.”
This transfer of traditional Spanish ceramics to his own creation can be seen in examples such as a jug from 1951 inspired by another from the 12th-13th centuries from Al-Andalus; an alfardón with a bullfighting scene that reproduces the hexagonal shape of the 13th century tile from Barcelona; a jug in which he paints a family in imitation of a 15th-century Paterna pharmacy jar; or in the pitcher “Sirena” (1957) with equivalents in archaeological pieces.