Description
COLLECTION OF WORKS OF ART OF THE PABLO RUIZ PICASSO FOUNDATION
Since 1988 until the present day the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation - Birth Place Museum has collected 3500 works of art from 200 different artists.
To locate the origins of this collection one must look at the history of the Foundation during these 12 years. The fact that it is located in the Birth Place of Pablo Picasso has meant that people who are intimately linked to the artist show sympathy to the institution through artisitic donations: such is the case of Marina Picasso, the granddaughter of the painter who in 1989 donated a file of original engravings of Picasso "Sueño y mentira de Franco" (aguafuerte and aguatinta, 1937) where biting irony and criticism are joined in an iconografia which betokes the emblematic Guernica.
On the same theme, one of the donations which is without doubt one of the key pieces of the collection, is that from Christine Picasso, daughter -in-law of the artist, who in October 1992 brought 10 books with original graphics. This is an artistic book collection which illustrates the perfection and masterwork of Picasso in the different techniques of engraving and his approaching of the literary world.
The history of Picasso's graphic works is widened by some other acquisitions which are on show to the public to give a general view of the different eras, styles and techniques of the artist of Malaga: "Las tres bañistas II", aguafuerte, made in 1922-23, and an example of a classic iconography, "Bañistas en bañador con el tiempo nublado", 1933, full of surrealist figures, "Escultor y su modelo ante un grupo escultórico representando a un centauro abrazando a una mujer", aguafuerte, 1933, mythological references and belonging to the Suite Vollard and "Picador entrando en la arena", linograbado, 1959, in which a moment of bullfighting is captured.
The Picassian ceramic collection is interesting, comprising of 9 pieces displaying the preferred themes of the artist in his final years: the bull, the bull stabber, schematic faces, a jug of zoomorphic inspiration... Thus the Foundation possesses some pieces of sentimental character related to the biography of the artist, donated by the sons of his sister, the Vilató family.
Alongside the works of Pablo Picasso, The Foundation displays other interesting collections, one of which being by Frank Rebaxes, peculiar personage, philosopher, inventor, creator of kinetic sculptures, whose collection was donated to the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation in 1988.
Another donation worth bearing in mind are the drawings of Luis Molledo's legacy.
In October 1996 the collection of the hungarian photographer Juan Gyenes was acquired, who visited Picasso in 1953, 1957 and 1961. The documental testimony of this collection is emotive as it offers us images of the painter in his daily life, his work, his workshop, his family...
Quantitatively and qualititavely,the most complete collection of the Foundation is that of graphic works which excluding the works of Picasso amounts to 2502 engravings.
The names of the Equipo Crónica, Pablo Palazuelo, Mompó, Eduardo Arroyo, Canogar, Manuel Rivera, Arman, Alfonso Albacete, Manuel Quejido or Marc Chagall, make up a collection of 2443 works acquired in 1998. The graphic works offer a complete panorama of contemporary aesthetics. They include names such as Miró, Christo, Francis Bacon, Joan Brossa, Max Ernst. Tápies, Chillida, Perejaume, Jaume Plensa, Dokoupil, Guayasamín, Guinovart, Wifredo Lam, Matta, Henry Moore…
The Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation is very proud of its collection from artists of Malaga. Representatives of the 50s generation are: Manuel Barbadillo, Enrique Brinkmann, Eugenio Chicano, Jorge Lindell, Francisco Peinado and Dámaso Ruano.
Other names with works in the collection are: Carlos Durán, Joaquín de Molina, Diego Santos and Joaquín Gallego along with the winners of the many grants Beca Pablo Ruiz Picasso a las Artes Plásticas, Rafael Alvarado, Andrés Repiso, Rogelio López Cuenca, Joaquín Ivars, Jesús Marín Clavijo, Bola Barrionuevo, Chema Lumbreras, Lope Martínez Alario and Jorge Dragón.
Last but not least, one cannot forget the sculpture collection with 21 pieces from authors such as Antonio Yesa, Stefan, Alfredo Alcaín, Pablo Serrano, Frechilla and José Luis Sánchez, amongst others.