Discover Picasso’s links with the Barcelona coast in new exhibition route

The Picasso Museum in Barcelona and the city’s historical port have joined forces to create an urban exhibition about the artist’s links with the harbor.  

'Picasso i el port. 1895-1904' dives into the relationship Picasso had with the sea and the maritime front in Barcelona.  

Six structures in public space around the historic port show 14 paintings made by the Spanish artist and 40 photographs of the area at the time he was living and working there. 

The panels tell the story of the Ruiz Picasso family upon their arrival in Barcelona as they lived in a building close to the harbor. 

Pablo Picasso usually walked around the Moll de la Barcelona, Moll de la Fusta, Passeig de Colom and Drassanes. These locations and the beach are the main scenarios that appear in Picasso's early paintings when he was 14 years old and living in the city.  

Through paintings like 'La Barceloneta' (1987), 'Dàrsena amb Montjuïc de fons' (1899) and 'Traginador' (1898) the exhibition shows how the city's coastline underwent significant economic changes and saw technological improvements. 

It also delves into what the social life was like for sailors and soldiers, as well as residents who used the beaches in the city. 

"The aim of this exhibition is to explain what the port looked like at the end of the 19th century, when Picasso lived next to it," Eugènia Peña, the exhibition's curator explained. 

"Pablo Picasso experimented with space and light in the harbor. However, his connection with Barcelona and its maritime surroundings is not much about the influence the city directly had on his work, but of the love he showed for the city," Peña added. 

To learn more about Pablo Picasso's artistic legacy, listen to this episode of our podcast Filling the Sink.