40th Anniversary of Picasso’s Passing Commemorated

Last April 8^th marked the 40^th anniversary of the demise of great artist Pablo Picasso. Back in 1973, Pablo Ruiz Picasso died when he was 91 years old at his house in Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins French municipality. Several activities have been organized this year in Spain to pay tribute to the artist.
 

Picasso Malaga Museum, also within the framework of its tenth anniversary, will be recalling in 2013 the origins and identity of this artist with three exhibitions. The museum showcased in February 2013 the Picasso de Malaga exhibition—Feb 25 to June 9—. Album de familia is going to be exhibited from April 29 to September 29, which will go deep into the museum’s familiar character, origin and vocation. Finally, 11 obras invitadas, exhibition made up of works created by the artists Picasso admired, will be open to the public from October 27 to February 2014.
 

Bancaja Foundation offered on Monday guided visits for free to Picasso. Fauno. Centauro. Minotauro exhibition, curated by Juan Carreteque, doctor History PhD at the Alcala de Henares University, Madrid, which can be presently admired at Bancaja Cultural Center. The exposition puts together 50 engravings on classic mythology’s influence in Picasso’s work, most of which belong to Bancaja Collection, along with other artworks given by Picasso Foundation. Malaga’s City Hall Birth House Museum and Spain’s National Library.
 

Bancaja Foundation is also exhibiting Picasso 1944-1969. Libros ilustrados para los amigos, in Sagunto, a brand new cultural proposal that can be visit at Glorieta Exhibition Hall through June 9. The display gathers six books that were illustrated by Pablo Picasso and created by writers, editors and collaborators who made up his close friend circle. The texts of these publications are joined by the 75 printed images that illustrate these six books.
 

These publications are Contrée, by surrealist poet Robert Desnos; Corps perdu, by Aimé Césaire; Balzacs en bas de casse et picassos sans majuscule, by writer and ethnologist Michel Leiris; Sable mouvant, by poet Pierre Reverdy; Le cocu magnifique, by writer, dramatist and actor Fernand Crommelynk; and El entierro del Conde de Orgaz, a book illustrated and written by Picasso, edited by his friend Gustavo Gili, with Rafael Alberti prologue.
 

On the other hand, Madrid’s Leandro Navarro gallery inaugurated on April 4 a Pablo Picasso’s individual exhibition in which, through 15 works that speak for his career, it travels to the core of this genie. The display will be open to the public through May 12 and is accompanied by a catalogue. Art critic Francisco Calvo Serraller wrote in the prologue, "from the beginning to the end of 20^th century, first as the incarnation of the young artist and, at the end, as the master that magnificently interpreted the avant-garde spirit, Pablo Picasso has always been the main focus of artistic attention."
 

The activities are also joined by Evaristo Valle de Gijon Museum, which has organized a children workshop, named Reinterpreting El Guernica, aimed at 8 - 12 year old children, and exhibition Picasso. Los 42 estudios sobre el papel para el Guernica, according to a note sent by the organizers. The display is also being exhibited within the framework of the 75^th anniversary of the bombing at Guernica city.
 

Leader and creator of different movements that revolutionized fine arts during the 20^th century, from cubism to neofigurative sculpture, engraving or etching, Picasso carried out an intense work in terms of number, variety and talent that go beyond seventy-five years of creating activity.