The Vila Casas Foundation exhibits “Homage to Picasso. Vallauris, 1972” at the Center for Catalan Studies in Paris

On January 18 at 6:30 p.m., the Center for Catalan Studies in Paris will host the opening of the Homage to Picasso exhibition. Vallauris, 1972. The presentation will be attended by the curator of the exhibition, Nadia Hernández Henche and the Foundation's Presidential Art Advisor, Natàlia Chocarro .

The extraordinary collection of rugs acquired by the Vila Casas Foundation was presented for the first time in 2022 at the Volart Spaces. The exhibition, curated by Nadia Hernández Henche , is made up of a set of 400 tapestries made by more than 270 national and international authors on the occasion of the attacks that took place against the name of Pablo Picasso when he celebrated his 90th birthday. This attack encouraged private and often clandestine initiatives to discredit the artist, such as the exhibition project promoted by gallerist Santiago Palet.

From this January, the exhibition will travel internationally for the first time and present, at the Center d'études Catalanes in Paris , a careful selection of 51 rugs that the curator has selected expressly for the occasion. The exhibition commemorates the 1st Rencontre International d'Hommage à Picasso that took place in 1972 in Vallauris and proposes a thematic reading that conveys the spirit of the original project. Works by national and international artists such as Eduardo Chillida, Sonia Delaunay, Antoni Tàpies and Equipo Crónica , among others, are presented.

Antoni Vila Casas acquired the collection of rugs and ensured its conservation as part of the Fundació Vila Casas. The protection of this set in a museum environment is the result of the commitment of a collector and an institution to the recovery of memory, and preserves a valuable legacy that speaks to us of the capacity of art as response to violence.