"Nightingale seen by Picasso" at the Maricell Museum

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso and the Year of Picasso, the Sitges Museums - in collaboration with the Picasso Museum in Barcelona - has programmed a set of activities, which emphasize their 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 during the course of this year.

The presentation of this initiative took place on June 1 at 12:30 p.m. at the Maricel Museum in Sitges and was attended by the director of the Picasso Museum, Emmanuel Guigon and the head of Sitges Museum Collections , Ignasi Domènech.

As for the temporary exhibition that can be visited at the Maricel Museum, the set of portraits that Picasso made of Rusiñol constitute one of the central axes of the exhibition Rusiñol seen by Picasso. The exhibition is coordinated by Ignasi Domènech, head of Sitges Museum Collections, and has significant contributions from the doctor in Art History Eduard Vallès.

This exhibition, which can be visited until September 24, 2023, presents 29 works, of which 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 Picasso made of Rusiñol are the guiding 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 Málaga artist at that time. In addition to Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, Miquel Utrillo, Ramon Pichot and Júlia Peraire also appear.

Among the reproduced works, there are two from the Musée National Picasso in Paris that were unpublished until 1990.
Regarding the list of works in the temporary exhibition, these are: La cursa de braus (El quite), La familia de D. Paco en su casa, Taverna fauna, Butterflies with burnt wings, Two dancing women and Face and hand notes. There are also other works exhibited in the Museum.

Very complete program of activities
Within the program of activities, the cultural route stands out: Picasso and Sitges, a physical and emotional mapping, which will take place on Sundays 4 June, 16 July, 6 August and 3 September 2023. There are also has scheduled the conference entitled "Picasso and the artists of Cau Ferrat de Sitges: their works and the aroma of history" by Eduard Vallès on June 16, at 7:00 p.m., at the Museu del Cau Ferrat .

On Friday 15 September at 19:00 at the Museu del Cau Ferrat, the conference will be held: "Picasso in Sitges, the construction of a story" by Vinyet Panyella.

A family workshop on July 13 and August 3 at the Maricel Museum and a cultural outing in Málaga on October 6 and 8 will just conclude the program of activities.

The direct links between Picasso and Sitges
It should be remembered that Sitges was one of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's settings. And the Museums of Sitges are direct witnesses to this, since in their collections there are six works by the Málaga artist.

The commemoration of the Picasso Year in Sitges highlights the direct links that the Malaga artist had with Sitges in two phases of his life: on the one hand, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries - when he came there in several occasions, thanks to his friendship with the artist Carles Casagemas - and in the thirties, after the death of Santiago Rusiñol, when he returned to visit the Cau Ferrat, which he had met decades ago and which at that time was finishing 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 there 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 came close to the Catalan Modernist intellectuals who moved around the Four Cats.

It should be noted that Rusiñol's painting had a profound influence on the young Picasso. And so did El Greco in a significant way, which the modernists claimed and projected.

As for the visiting hours at the Cau Ferrat Museum and the Maricel Museum from June to September this year, they are from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.