Happy Birthday Picasso

The Picasso Museum is in an old part of Barcelona- the narrow streets have a medieval feeling to them and the Picasso blends right in. I’ve always been amazed at the genius of Picasso- he was a boy wonder at age 12 and at age 15 won his first art competition that got him into art school. Pablo spent much of his youth here in Barcelona and he was thrilled to have the museum in the city and actually bequeathed much of his work to Barcelona. In keeping with his political stance, Picasso never saw the completed mecum as he vowed never to step foot in a Franco-ruled Spain and the Franco regime outlasted Picasso.

The most memorable part of the Picasso was his series of interpenetrations of the Velazquez work, “Maids of Honor” a piece we saw at the Prado in Madrid. The Velázquez piece is from 1656 and Picasso spent much of the late 1950s creating more than 50 different pieces that cut apart the original and put it into Picasso’s modern “Cubism” style. Most critics would saw that these two Spaniards are artistic equals, but Picasso spoke often of his great respect for Velázquez. The museum presented the two artists in a very unique way using flat panel monitors and mirrors that placed one work over the other—a great introduction prior to seeing the real work.

It’s the 125th anniversary of Picasso’s birth and there was a special exhibit of Picasso’s work as an adult in France. There were lots of Picasso-related celebrations earlier this year to commemorate the birth of this famous Spaniard.



We walked around the city a bit more after the museum- the narrow streets are very pedestrian friendly and encourage you to walk. Maybe that’s how Spaniards stay so fit- they walk everywhere. There is art everywhere on the streets of Barcelona- from fountains to statues- the walking tour we did was a museum in itself.

As for tonight, we might catch a train to a Sitges for a party.