Picasso’s drawings gather after World War II burst

Madrid. Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived with restlessness the outbreak of World War II, which occurred at the stage in which he had moved to live in the French town of Royan, where he also recorded his regret and concern in eight notebooks of pencil and ink drawings that are now grouped and exposed in the Picasso Museum in Malaga.

“The canvases, the racks and the oils were more scarce than the paper, the ink and the gouache. Thus, to develop his ideas in sequence, characteristic of his work method, he dedicated much of his creative energies to drawing, ”said Marilyn McCully, the curator of the exhibition Picasso: Royan’s notebooks. Never before had they exposed the eight notebooks together, because they were scattered in private collections and in the family’s own collection, which in the past had shown them rarely and in isolation.

The calls Royan Notebooks There are eight compilations of pencil and ink drawings, along with gouachesphotographs, paintings, drawings and poems that show the emotional turbulence of the Spanish artist in times of war, specifically in the 1939 and 1940 years, just when World War II began and shortly after he himself had to exile in France to France Root of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the arrival to power of a fascist dictatorship led by Francisco Franco.

Picasso moved to Royan, to a spa on the outskirts of the city, between September 1939 and August 1940. There he was accompanied by Dora Maar and by Jaime Sabartés, in addition to Marie-Thérèse Walter and Maya, the daughter who He had had with Picasso, because this place was considered, being far from the French capital, it seemed a safe refuge in the face of the inexorable advance of Nazis troops and the latent threat of an invasion. During those eight months, restless for the war, Picasso several times made the path of the 500 kilometers that separate Royan from Paris, in order to verify, as a foreigner he was, that his documents were in order, as well as to control the safety and storage of their works, and even to attend the preparations for an exhibition of their drawings.

Ideas in sequence

The curator McCully explained that “the nature of Picasso’s artistic activity changed, largely determined by the limited availability of materials: the canvases, the racks and oils were more scarce than the paper, the ink and the gouache. Thus, seeking to develop their ideas in sequence – characteristic of his work method -, he dedicated much of his creative energies to drawing.

Possibly due to this difficulty of finding artistic materials in Royan, Picasso bought several drawing notebooks and other normal paper notes at the local bookstore, already scratched or grid. These little notebooks allowed them Sketches to write visual ideas with reference to previous works or new ideas of future compositions.

Exceptional sample

Marilyn McCully also said that it is a sample exceptional Because it is the first time that the eight notebooks are exhibited together, With what can be understood more precisely everything that happened in Picasso’s mind during that stay in France.

And it is precisely those notebooks, bought in the small library of the city, which are shown now and in which all the concerns and aesthetic tastes of the Picasso are then: from the still life, a genre that he addressed in times of war with special drama , even formal studies of female figures reminiscent of their partner, Dora Maar, source of artistic inspiration during her stay in that town. In addition, it highlights the almost absence of portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter and her Mayan daughter, whom she saw daily. Among the notebooks exhibited at the Picasso Málaga Museum, one of them also collects poetic writings by Pablo Picasso, a form of expression with which he had experienced for the first time in 1935.

Although there is no certainty of the exact number of the canvases that Picasso painted during his stay in Royan, four works presented in this exhibition reflect his pictorial activity and creative drive in that period. It’s about Women’s bust with crossed arms behind the head (1939), Three lamb heads (1939), Woman combing (1940) y Café en Royan (August 1940).

The exhibition, organized by the Picasso Málaga Museum in collaboration with the Almine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation, together with the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Junta de Andalucía, will be on the poster until April 30.