The ‘Picasso Year’ will not escape the debate over the most lurid profiles of the Malaga genius

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“He has not imprisoned or imprisoned the women who lived with him,” says his grandson Bernard, who rates the gender debate as “healthy and positive”.

The undeniable genius of Pablo Picasso and the most lurid profiles of his controversial personality will coexist during the celebration of the “Picasso Year” commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death in 2022 and 2023. A program with more than 50 acts, with 42 exhibitions in seven countries and with a budget of six million euros -three contributed by the state and three by Telefónica, the main sponsor-, who presented the culture ministers of France and Spain this Monday for the ‘Guernica’.

The exhibitions and conferences will discuss Picasso’s alleged misogyny and his complex and unequal relationship with women. A “healthy and positive debate if it is of quality”, said Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, grandson of the Malaga genius who attended the presentation. He warned that his grandfather was “a son of his time” and that the women who lived with him “know what they were holding onto.” “He has not imprisoned or imprisoned the women. They knew what was up. A woman knows when there is a risk of getting a little sunburnt. That’s life, and everyone lives it the way they want,” he said. “Picasso, as a great artist of the 20th century, raised big questions that we are discussing now,” he added.

“If there is one artist who defines the 20th century, who represents it with all its cruelty, its violence, its passion, its excesses and its contradictions, it is undoubtedly Pablo Picasso.” This was stated by the head of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, for the most universal work of Picasso in the Reina Sofía Museum, who made a detailed account of the deeds of the fiftieth anniversary.

For his French colleague Rima Abdul Malak: “Picasso’s work continues to exert a real fascination all over the world.” Abundant, inventive and often radical, it does so for its artistic strength, of course, but also for its political strength, which is why it never ceases to be re-read, revised and reinterpreted.”

But the ambitious program for the ‘Picasso Year’ will transcend that debate about Picasso’s relationship with women, for many inappropriate and objectionable given the current criteria of equality. “We are not going to hide anything,” agreed the Spanish minister and his French colleague. “In the debates, the gender issue will be considered and Picasso will be shown as he is. The greatness of his work overlaps, but it hides nothing,” Iceta insisted. “We present Picasso in all its dimensions. I don’t think life and work can be separated, but I don’t think life hides Picasso’s work either, a child of his time and with all the contradictions of a passionate character.» “We are not hiding anything and we will get to know him as an artist and as a person,” said Iceta.

“That the part of the violence in it is known should not be glossed over, I believe in the debate,” said his French colleague. “We can’t sum up her work in her relationship with women,” said Rima Abdul Malak, who recognized herself as a feminist and fighter for equality. The French minister also referred to the complexity of Picasso’s figure, pointing out that his relationship with women has already been addressed in one of the exhibitions planned by the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

About fifty activities are planned in different countries. So far, two conferences and 42 exhibitions are planned: 16 in Spain, 12 in France, 7 in the United States, two in Germany, two in Switzerland, one in Monaco, one in Romania and one in Belgium.

Among the exhibitions are the Spanish museums such as the Thyssen and the Prado, the Metriopolitan and the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao, the Picasso museums in Paris, Barcelona and Malaga or the Paris Pompidou, which will bring together more than 2,000 drawings . . The finishing touch will be the ‘1906: The Great Transformation’ exhibition that the Reina Sofía Museum will present at the end of 2023, which will be a pivotal year for the evolution of Picasso and will include the work seized by Jaime Botín.

France and the Picasso family are lending more than 700 works that will travel around the world in the coming months. The exhibitions are being held in a more-than-delicate economic time, with the most expensive insurance and transportation costs in history, which will force organizers “to deal with inflated prices,” Iceta said.

Source: La Verdad

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