Picasso Museum to celebrate artist's 50th anniversary with exhibitions and guidebook

Barcelona's Picasso Museum has revealed its plans for a double anniversary year, with 2023 marking 50 years since the death of Pablo Picasso and 60 years since the gallery was founded. 

It will host two major exhibitions, the first of which is already underway and runs until March 19, on the art dealer and publisher Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, organized with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 

The second is a collaboration with another Barcelona art institution, the Joan Miró Foundation, on the relationship between Picasso and Miró, whose 40th anniversary takes place this year. That exhibition will run from October 19 until February 25. 

Together with Barcelona City Council Publications and Tenov Publishers, the museum will create a guidebook to Barcelona that "will help to visit the city through the eyes of Picasso," called 'Picasso Barcelona. A Cartography'. 

It will be published in English, as well as Catalan and Spanish, and will give readers an opportunity to explore the Malaga-born artist's relationship with the Catalan capital. 

The museum will host artistic interventions on the Picasso Collection by Catalan artists Frederic Amat and Pilar Aymerich, while material from the museum's collection will also be exhibited at shows in Madrid and Paris. 

Museum director Emmanuel Guigon said that he is "very happy" with the level of participation the Catalan museum has in the official commemoration of Picasso's anniversary, which is being coordinated at state level between Spain and France. 

"It would not be right if the Picasso Museum, being the museum 'of Picasso', did not have a leading role in the celebrations." 

Carmen Calvo and Hélène Delprat exhibtions 

As well as the Picasso celebrations, the museum will also host exhibitions by Valencian artist Carmen Calvo and French artist Hélène Delprat. 

The museum also revealed it is preparing a "special" party for March 9, marking its 60th anniversary, but did not want to give more details. 

The Picasso Museum received 794,806 visitors last year, an increase that brings it close to pre-pandemic figures.