Picasso visits us and surprises us

After 50 years since his death, the soul of Mr Picasso haunts the primate city of the Spanish Pacific. His powerful being, always renewed, always young, amazed, touched and delighted us through the rich sample of his works in Spanish Cultural Center in Panama, invited by Cultural work of the Foundation of the Ibero-American University -the owner of these treasures-.

And, how could it be otherwise, equally French Embassy, the country where the artist lived until his death, who also participated in the worldwide commemoration of this event. Like the saints whose death dates are celebrated for their entry into the heaven of the righteous, it is worth mentioning this restless, unfaithful, playful, quarrelsome and free genius for his entry into the heaven of the great classics of art of all time.

As is well known, Picasso spent his youthful journey in between Malaga, Madrid and Barcelona, and from there he goes to Paris – the greatest European cultural center in the first half of the 20th century – to combine his fame with the fame of many restorers of plastic, music and letters in an environment that will never be repeated. . His legend, won to the point of perseverance and genius (his line is that “inspiration exists, but it must find us at work”) would have won the first place among his contemporaries. And later, when the winds of art gave way to other currents and names of origin, his legend continued to grow, because no one can remain indifferent to his legacy, his works, his colors and forms.

The purity of the line of the great draftsman; the colors of their different periods – especially pink and blue – and then the cataclysm of forms – of which El Guernica is an unsurpassed expression – appearance concentric shapes, volumes and bold dispositions – I think of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon –, and that long series of creation, re-establishment and many years of learning. All this still amazes Picasso, and the title of this exhibition, which is visiting us in Panama, from June 5 to July 29, in the Casco Viejo of the land that is also in love with the sea, is also appropriate.

It seems that Picasso is looking for the sea, he, who was born in the extreme west of the Mediterranean Sea, in the south of Iberia, only a hundred kilometers from Gibraltar, and was baptized near the sea, according to custom that time as Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mary of Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz and Picasso.

And then, in the city of Barcelona, ​​in turn-of-the-century Barcelona, ​​the bridge of novelty between Spain and Europe. Even after that stay in Paris, full of adventures, struggles and triumphs, he was not released from prison (he was accused of theft Monalisa or Gioconda by Leonardo) and the torments of the always terrible Nazi occupation, he often went to the Côte d’Azur, settling in 1973, at the age of ninety-one, in his house in Mougins. His wife, Jacqueline, buried him at the Chateau of Vauvenargues, another Picasso property.

It was like that until his death, as if the sea and the sun were his secret dynamo. Near the Pacific, Picasso call us now.

In the sample which FUNIBER presents, under the curatorship of maestro Federico Fernández, It contains four basic parts. We have in first place: “Les Bleus de Barcelona”; a set of eleven works, edited by Jaime Sabartés – a friend of the artist – intended for the inauguration Picasso Museum in Barcelona, with beautiful paintings from Picasso’s blue series.

The second set is: “Dancers”. It consists of 14 engravings on leather with drawings of dancers. It is about academic studies, where Picasso’s mastery of technique stands out as an excellent draftsman. Several of them are made in one line. VHere we are Picasso’s heir of the purest classicism.

The next set is “Geneviève”, his lover Geneviéve Laporte, a collection of 12 works on Japanese paper. Picasso He exposes her naked or gives only half of her body, from the front and in profile, and even in the game with Cupid. This series has very dynamic, surprising and little known spontaneous and decorative drawings.

Finally, the exhibition is rounded off with two paintings. These are the preparatory drawings for “Las mujeres de Algiers”, which also belong to the series called “La California”, which are sketches of paintings from the studio itself and sketches of what would be the series Women of Algiers which, as is known, is one of Picasso’s paintings that reached an all-time record price at auction. There is a poster in this special section “original” from the exhibition “Les Bleus de Barcelona”.

From a period perspective, a pattern “Picasso: Still Surprising” has a virtue to show us, first, the young artist, between 1895 and 1904; then his evolution in 1940 and 1955. In other words, the first, the phase of the artist who begins to make modifications in his way of working.

In the period from 1955, we have a Picasso recreating himself as an aggressive Picasso, in a completely transformed Picasso, cubism and surrealism, but where the note will always be the unexpected, the astonishing. In this way, the outstanding characteristics are his ease as a draftsman, one of his own secret love stories and the process of conception of one of the most expensive paintings in history.

I think what has been said is attractive enough to invite the Panamanian public to visit this exhibition with free admission in that beautiful place that is House of Spain, appointment in the Treasuries, our beloved San Felipe.