Picasso Sculptor. Matter and Body
09.29.2023 - 01.14.2024
Pablo Picasso (b. 1881; d. 1973) worked with sculpture from practically the beginning of his long career. For the Málaga-born artist, it was not a lesser medium but a form of expression on a par with painting, drawing, or engraving. In his practice, there were no major and minor arts but different languages and materials with which to transmit various aspects of his creation. The body, the ultimate objective of Picasso’s representation and his main instrument throughout his career, is the cornerstone of this exhibition, one of the events held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death.
This selection of sculptures ranges across the many styles used by Picasso to represent the forms of the human body, deconstructing it in order to recompose it. To this end, he made use indistinctly of all the means and objects within his reach, integrating them in a whole that had never before been seen. Sculptor Julio González saw Picasso’s sculptural gaze as lying at the genesis of his entire oeuvre: “I have often observed that there is no form that leaves him indifferent. He looks at everything, at every moment, because all forms represent something for him, and he sees everything as a sculptor […]. In my opinion, the mysterious side, the nerve center so to speak, of Picasso’s oeuvre is in the ‘sculpture’ that has made his work so talked about, that has won him so much glory.”
Galleries: second floor
Curators: Carmen Giménez, Lucía Agirre
Venues: Museo Picasso Málaga, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Exhibition organized by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in collaboration with the Museo Picasso Málaga
Pablo Picasso
Figure: Project for a Monument to Guillaume Apollinaire, 1928
Iron wire and plate
59.5 x 13 x 32 cm
Musée national Picasso-Paris, gift by Pablo Picasso, 1979,
Inv. Nr.: MP265
Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris)/ Adrien Didierjean
© Succesion Pablo Picasso
Virtual Tour
The Exhibition
Pablo Picasso
Woman with Vase, Boisgeloup, summer 1933
Bronze, cast in 1972 or 1973
220 × 122 × 110 cm
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. Git of Pablo Picasso
DE00051
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Pablo Picasso
Figure: Project for a Monument to Guillaume Apollinaire, Paris, fall 1928
Iron wire and sheet metal
59.5 × 13 × 32 cm
Musée national Picasso-Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979
inv. nr: M P265
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Adrien Didierjean
Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman, April–July 1937 [original in plaster made in Boisgeloup in 1931]
Cement, unique edition
142 × 54.5 × 62.5 cm
Musée Picasso, Antibes
Gift of the artist, 1954
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Pablo Picasso
Head of a Warrior, Boisgeloup, January 1, 1933
Bronze with patina
121 x 69 x 32 cm
Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Madrid. On temporary loan to the Museo Picasso Málaga
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Pablo Picasso
Picasso’s Right Hand, Paris, 1937
Plaster
20.5 × 14.2 × 3.4 cm
Musée national Picasso-Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979
inv. nr.: MP321
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris)/
Adrien Didierjean
Pablo Picasso
The Bathers, Cannes, summer 1956
Bronze
Six sculptures, various dimensions
Musée national Picasso-Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979, inv.nr.: MP352-357
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris)/Mathieu Rabeau
Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman (Dora Maar), 1941
Bronze
80 × 40 × 55 cm
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Sammlung Beyeler
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: Peter Schibli
Pablo Picasso
Pregnant Woman (second state), Vallauris, 1959
Plaster and shellac
111 × 32.5 × 34.5 cm
Private collection
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: Robert Mackeever
Pablo Picasso
Little Girl Jumping Rope, Vallauris, 1950
Bronze
153 × 62 × 65 cm
Private collection
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman, Mougins, late 1962
Cut, folded, and polychromed sheet metal and iron wire
32 × 24 × 16 cm
Musée national Picasso-Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979
© Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris)/Adrien Didierjean/Mathieu Rabeau
Did you
know that...?
Picasso Sculptor
Didaktika proiektuaren baitan, Museoak gune didaktikoak, online edukiak eta jarduera bereziak diseinatzen ditu erakusketa bakoitzaren osagarri gisa, publikoak tresnak eta baliabideak izan ditzan ikusgai dauden artelanak hobeto balioetsi ahal izateko.
From Non-Finito to cubism
In 1902, while he was living in Barcelona, Picasso turned to his friend the sculptor Emili Fontbona (b. 1879; d. 1938) to introduce him to clay modeling.
Drawings in space
In 1927 Picasso was commissioned to create a monument for the tomb of his friend the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (b. 1880; d. 1918).
The Boisgeloup Plasters
In 1930, Picasso purchased the Château de Boisgeloup, which opened up multiple possibilities for him.
Clandestine Bronzes
During World War II, and despite the German occupation, Picasso remained in Paris. There, in his studio on the Rue des Grands-Augustins where he had painted Guernica in 1937, he continued creating large-scale plaster works.
Ceramics
In 1947 Picasso moved to Vallauris, in the south of France. With the help of ceramists Suzanne (b. 1905; d. 1974) and Georges Ramié (b. 1901; d. 1976), he began to explore ceramic making, a process that has several stages.
Assemblages
In Vallauris, in addition to producing ceramics, Picasso’s overflowing creativity drove him once again to create assemblages by reusing discarded objects from a nearby junkyard and transforming them into surprising figures.
Sheet Metal Sculptures and Monumental Sculptures
In 1954 Picasso was in Vallauris, and in his desire to transfer his fragile, folded, and cut paper and cardboard sculptures that blend painting and sculpture to a more durable medium, he embarked on another important collaboration, this time with welder Joseph-Marius Tiola (b. 1902; d. 1986)