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Buy ticketsSitges Museums will join the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death with an exhibition and different cultural proposals
Sitges was one of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's favourite haunts. and Museums of Sitges are a blatant proof. In their collections there are six works by the painter from Málaga. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Museus de Sitges - in collaboration with the Museu Picasso de Barcelona - scheduled a set of activities, which emphasize his links with the town and the relationship with Santiago Rusiñol. An exhibition, a route, conferences and other socio-cultural proposals will make it possible to visualize Sitges in the Picasso universe in a relevant way.
The commemoration of the Year of Picasso in Sitges highlights the direct links that the genius from Malaga had with Sitges in two phases of his life: on the one hand, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries - when he visited in several occasions, thanks to his friendship with the artist Carles Casagemas – and in the 1930s, after the death of Santiago Rusiñol that he met decades before, when he returned to visit the Cau Ferrat, which was being conditioned to open as a public museum.
Picasso's relationship with Sitges was significant and also had a direct impact on his work. His friendship with the painter Carles Casagemas – who spent periods in the town, as his mother was born in Sitges and his sisters lived there – attracted Picasso. Here he visited Cau Ferrat and met Santiago Rusiñol. In a short period of time, Picasso made 22 portraits of Rusiñol, at a time when the young artist approached Catalan Modernist intellectuals which were always present at Quatre Gats. In fact, it is believed that other portraits may appear there.
Rusiñol's painting was strongly influenced the young Picasso, and also by El Greco in a significant way, which the modernists claimed and projected. Since 1894, Cau Ferrat housed two works by the Cretan artist that Rusiñol had acquired in Paris: Les llagrimes de Sant Pere and Magdalena penitent.
Santiago Rusiñol became a pioneer in collecting works by Picasso at the turn of the century. The Cau Ferrat Museum has a painting of his in its background (La cursa de braus) and five drawings. All date from the years 1900-01.
The exhibition The set of Rusiñol's portraits made by Picasso constitute one of the central axes of the exhibition Rusiñol vist per Picasso, organized by Museu de Sitges, with the collaboration of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. The exhibition is coordinated by Ignasi Domènech, head of Sitges Museum Collections, and has significant contributions from the doctor in Art History Eduard Vallès. The inauguration took place today at the Maricel Museum, where it can be visited until September 24.
Rusiñol vist per Picasso presents 29 works, 9 come from the Picasso Museum, loaned to Sitges Museums for the exhibition. The six pieces from the Cau Ferrat Museum are also on display, as well as other works from private collections. Also on display are reproductions of Picasso drawings obtained from periodical magazines and publications and of which, in some cases, the originals are unknown.
The portraits that Rusiñol made of Picasso are the common thread of the exhibition. There are some that are made in unusual supports, such as, for example, an inventory book of a grocery store, the result of the creative voracity of the artist from Málaga at that time. In addition to Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, Miquel Utrillo, Ramon Pichot and Júlia Peraire are also present. Among the reproduced works, there are two from the Musée National Picasso in Paris that were unpublished until 1990.
The activities. In addition to the exhibition, the Picasso Year celebration in Sitges is accompanied by other activities organized by Museus de Sitges. Cultural routes, conferences and workshops make up the entire proposal, which starts this first weekend of June and ends in October.
