##24/7 Valencia:Could you tell us more about the Picasso exhibition?

Fundación Bancaja: “The Picasso exhibition ‘Modelos del deseo’ offers a tour through the late work of the Malaga painter and his entire creative imagination with desire as the motivation for his artistic creativity. The collection of works on display allows visitors to see the models of Picasso’s desire which, even in his old age, lead to erotic encounters and the idea that art is a vehicle for pleasure.

The exhibition, which has the collaboration of Bankia, brings together a selection of 228 works, dated between 1961 and 1972, from Picasso’s graphic work collection belonging to the Bancaja Foundation, which are shown together with 35 photographs taken of the artist between 1944 and 1969 from the collections of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.

Along with a selection of linoleum and the complete series of Family Portrait (1961-62) and The Smokers (1964), the exhibition is based mainly on Picasso’s production on paper in Suite 347 (1968) and Suite 156 (1970-72) which, in the words of Fernando Castro, constitute “one of his most intense works, a truly frenetic cycle in which he takes up all his imagery, from the central theme of the ‘painter and model’ to the reconsideration of the history of art, introducing humorous tones that, at times, slide towards the grotesque. The works of these years, created with the same obsession as when he was young, form a ‘self-portrait’ in the form of an erotic diary, recording his fantasies and disappointments.”

The works brought together allow us to contemplate the vigour maintained by an octogenarian Picasso who, far from the contemporary artistic trends that emerged after the Second World War, tackles recurrent themes in his career such as Adam and Eve with the same vigour and mastery, the circus, the erotic scene and the brothel, the odalisques, the painter and the model, musketeers, the burial of the Count of Orgaz, portraits of women, smokers, family portraits, La Celestina, the history of art, Raphael, Degas in the brothel or voyeurism.

This approach to the mature Picasso is completed with the exhibition of photographs by some of the most relevant photographers who have left testimony of the artist’s personal and creative environment. The photographs on display are signed by David Douglas Duncan, André Villers, Jacqueline Roque, Robert Capa, Edward Quinn, Michel Sima, Lucien Clergue and Roberto Otero. The images show Pablo Picasso working in his last years in some of his studios.

The exhibition also includes extracts from three films in which Picasso is the protagonist and in which he is also seen working in his studies and engaged in the process of creation: Pablo Picasso a Vallauris (1954), by Luciano Emmer; Guerre, paix et amour (1972), by Lucien Clergue; and The Mystery of Picasso (1956), by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue has been published with the reproduction of the works present in the exhibition and critical texts by the curator, Fernando Castro, and the director of the Museu Picasso de Barcelona, Emmanuel Guigon. In addition, with the aim of deepening the work of Picasso, the Pablo Picasso seminar will take place during the months of January and February. Models of Desire and Graphic Obsessions, which will be attended by researchers, critics and art specialists.

Within the complementary activities, different didactic workshops will also be developed for schoolchildren and children, people with disabilities, and people at risk of social exclusion.”

PICASSO

MODELOS DEL DESEO

Until March 1st 2020

FUNDACIÓN BANCAJA

23 Plaza Tetuán

Valencia

Tel: 96 0 64 58 40

http://www.fundacionbancaja.es

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday: 10 am to 2 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm // Monday: 10 am to 2 pm // Holidays: 10 am to 2 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm.

Free access for all publics: Sundays, from 4pm to 8pm.

Entrance fee: General: 3 euros / Reduced: 1 euro (pensioners, unemployed, people with functional diversity, students from 13 to 26 years old) // Free (children under 12 years old). Ticket sales at the box office (Plaza Tetuán, 23). Each ticket allows access to all the exhibitions in force at the time at the Bancaja Foundation.

Guided tour: Friday and Saturday, except holidays. 18 h. Price: 2 euros (free for children under 12). Duration: 45 min. Prior booking essential at visitasguiadas@fundacionbancaja.es. They can be taken on the day of the visit itself, ten minutes before the start.