Exploring Picasso Where He Was Born
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, dozens of cultural institutions are holding events in the United States and Europe. One of the best places to discover pre-celebrity Picasso is his hometown, Málaga, the Andalusian port city in the south of Spain. This is where he was born and where his talent became evident to his father, José Ruiz Blasco, an art teacher.
Though the family relocated to A Coruña in northern Spain when Pablo was 9 years old, and he would go on to study and live in Madrid and Barcelona before settling in Paris in 1904, Picasso always considered himself a malagueño.
“He adored Spain and always honored his Andalusian roots,” said his grandson, Bernard Picasso. “You can see it in the colors he used, the bullfighting imagery, the Mediterranean.”
Picasso last visited Spain in the mid-1930s, shortly before the Spanish Civil War, which ended in 1939 with General Francisco Franco establishing a military dictatorship that endured nearly 40 years, outlasting Picasso’s own life. The artist never returned to his homeland again.
Were he to turn up in Málaga today, Picasso would find a museum bearing his name — the Museo Picasso Málaga opened in 2003 and now draws nearly 700,000 visitors a year. He would likely be charmed to find his childhood home, the church where he was baptized, as well as the art academy where his father taught — not to mention the city’s bullring, cathedral and other landmarks — much as he left them.
Hundreds of stairs rise from Málaga’s first-century B.C. Roman theater to the Alcazaba, the Moorish hilltop fortress begun in the 11th century that overlooks the city and port from Mount Gibralfaro. The fortress is emblematic of the layering of Mediterranean history, symbols and mythology that Picasso would use in his art.
The Museum of Málaga chronicles the city from the earliest days of classical antiquity to well into the 20th century. There is an explanation of its cultural boom in the 19th century, when local artists excelled at portraiture and historical painting, and also depicted social gatherings.
“Everyone asks how this creative genius could have come out of sleepy Málaga,” said Ana Gonzalez, the founder of a tour company, Arteduca Málaga. “The reality is that Picasso was born in the right place, at the right time and in the right context. His father was an artist and teacher of painting, and many of his friends were artists who knew to encourage and foster the young boy’s talent.”
The Ruiz Picasso family enjoyed relative middle-class comfort as evidenced by a visit to Casa Natal, the house where Pablo was born. Downstairs, an exhibition space focuses mostly on his prints and drawings, but it really sets the scene with insightful Picasso quotes — “I have never done children’s drawings. Never. Even when I was very small” — and archival photos covering many aspects of Picasso’s life.
Nearby is the Parish Church of Santiago Apóstol, where Picasso was baptized. A hundred meters or so further is the Museo Picasso Málaga, which features an overview of his career. The special exhibition “Picasso Sculptor: Matter and Body” is surprisingly the first major exhibition in Spain to focus on the artist’s sculptures.
A highlight of the current selection of works is a 1958 tapestry version of Picasso’s 1907 painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” woven by Jacqueline Dürrbach. Only one was ever made, and Picasso kept it until his death, hanging it over the fireplace at his villa La Californie in the South of France.