Picasso’s Barcelona

Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived part of his youth and training in Barcelona. Thanks to Tourism of Barcelona, that organises Barcelona Walking Tour Picasso, we put forward the discovery of the bohemian Barcelona that Picasso lived at the end of 19th century and early 20th cen-tury. Meeting points for intellectuals such as Els Quatre Gats; the friezes at the Architects Association or even the first studio the painter had in the city are just some of the compulsory visits. The route ends up at Museu Picasso, a place that gathers the most important collec-tion by the painter from Malaga.

One of the most important periods of an artist’s life is the training one. Picasso’s youth is linked to Barcelona by a history full of anecdotes, friendships and events which influenced his life and his artistic career. His close bonds to the city lasted up to his death.

We propose beginning the route La Barcelona de Picasso at Els Quatre Gats, a modernist restaurant, founded in 1897, which became a meeting point for intellectuals and artists from the time. Picasso used to go to this restaurant where he met lots of people and made friends with Carles Casagemas and Santiago Rusiñol.

Next compulsory stop is to admire the friezes at the Architects Association, the only work by Picasso which was done outdoors. These friezes were done by the Norwegian Carl Nesjar and were based on original designs by Picasso which represent popular Catalan subjects.

After that you can head to Sala Parés, the art gallery par excellence at that time. It was in there where the great works by the Catalan artists at the time were exhibited. In 1901 in this place, there was the first exhibition by Picasso together with Ramon

Casas.

Once you’ve visited Sala Parés, we propose walking along C/Avinyó, which was the inspiration for the painter from Málaga to paint Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. At number 56 in this same street, you’ll find Restaurant Pitarra, where there used to be literary gatherings at the back room.

Right now we propose visiting two different places where Picasso lived. First of all in C/ de la Plata whe-re you’ll find Picasso’s first studio that was rented by his father and that he shared with Manuel Pallarés in 1896. And secondly, you can visit Porxos d’En Xifré, the first residence of family Ruiz Picasso when they arrived in Barcelona in 1895.

Another significant place in Picasso’s life was Llotja de Mar, the art school where he studied. After that you can lead to Ribera district, where there’s the last studio Picasso had before leaving to Paris. In this district you can visit Santa Maria del Mar church.

We finally put forward visiting Museu Picasso. You will find the most important collection of his youth and training. Some posterior works point out, like the interpretative series of Las Meninas by Velaz-quez in 1957, ceramics and engraving works.

Visits: Saturdays and Sundays at 10.30am (En-glish), and at 11.30am (Catalan/Castilian).

Meeting Point: Tourism Information Office in Bar-celona. Pl. de Catalunya, 17-S.

Information on the phone: 34 933 689 730 (international calls) 807 117 222 (calls inside Spain. Price per minute: 0,39 euros IVA included).

Fares:

Adult: 10 euros. 1st Sunday of the month: 7.50 euros Children: (4-12 years of age): 5 euros 1st Sunday of the month 3 euros (It includes the en-trance to Museu Picasso).

Índex1. Els Quatre Gats

2. Friezes at the Architects Association

3. Sala Parés

4. Carrer Avinyó

5. Restaurant Pitarra

6. Carrer de la Plata

7. Porxos d’En Xifré

8. Llotja del Mar

9. Santa Maria del Mar

10. Museu Picasso

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56

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1. Els Quatre Gats

Els Quatre Gats is one of the historical cafés in the city. It was founded in 1897; this café-canteen became in a short time the meeting point for the bohemia and intellectuals in Barcelona. All the great artists in Barcelona at that time sat at those tables (Ramón Casas, Joaquín Mir, Isidre Nonell, Anglada Camarasa, Rubén Darío and even Gaudí).

Picasso used to assist to this place where there used to be social gatherings. In there he met, among others, his friend Carles Casagemas and Santiago Russiñol. There are countless drawings and pain-tings which show Picasso’s presence to this place. In 1990, Picasso has his first individual exhibition at Sala Gran in Els Quatre Gats.

Moreover, the building Casa Martí, one of the first Puig i Cadafalch’s works, has also a lot of importan-ce as an example by the incipient modernist archi-tecture. Nowadays, Els Quatre Gats keeps a great part of the taste and original decoration.

2. Friezes at the Architects Asso-ciation

It’s four decades now when the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar made a graffito on 57 metres of concrete about the figures Picasso had represented on paper. And he actually converted, most of Picasso’s work in Barcelona, which is besides, the only one that the painter from Málaga did in Spain after 1936.

The friezes at the Architects Association are the only work by Picasso that’s in the street. Nesjar worked for six months on the original designs by Picasso that represent popular Catalan topics. The set of the three friezes of Mediterrània is formed by: children’s frieze, giants’ frieze and senyera’s frieze.

3. Sala Parés

Sala Parés. A hundred years ago Sala Parés used to be the art gallery par excellence. It was placed, just like nowadays, at number 5 in C/ Petritxol, it used to hold exhibitions by the great Catalan artists of the time. There were, at the end of the century, very different styles. Some, of pretty clear continui-ty style and some others that were already showing the deep changes that were about to take place in the 20th century.

Among these last ones, some figures point out like Picasso, Mir, Gimeno, Nonell and Canals which go beyond modernism and open the Catalan painting towards the 20th century tendencies. Curiously, the-se painters’ exhibitions, today so much valued, were at that time a commercial failure.

In 1901 the first exhibition by Picasso took place together with Ramon Casas, and it was organised by the magazine Pèl & Ploma.

4. Carrer Avinyó

Carrer Avinyó. When Picasso was young used to go to this street together with his friends. The well-known work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, considered the first of the cubist movemet, reproduces ¿the ladies¿ of a brothel in this street.

This street inspired Picasso to paint one of the main paintings for the art revolution in the 20th century.

5. Restaurant Pitarra

Restaurant Pitarra. At the back room of an antique jeweller’s own by the Catalan poet and dramatist Frederic Soler known as Serafi Pitarra, there used to be literary gatherings where the artists of the time took part.

Since 1890 it’s a restaurant where you can go and taste the typical dishes of Catalan Cuisine.

6. Carrer de la PlataIn this street there’s Picasso’s first studio, rented by his father, professor of drawing and painter, José Ruiz Blasco. In 1896, he shared this studio with his friend Manuel Pallarès.

Picasso’s first drawings date from 1891, when the family moved from Màlaga to La Corunya, where the bloom of his genius took place. In 1895 he returned to Màlaga and, in the autumn, he settled in Barce-lona and joined the Fine Art school La LLotja, where he became Antoni Caba’s pupil.

The work Ciència i Caritat, is from this time and got the honourable mention at Exposición Nacional de Madrid in 1897.

7. Porxos d’En Xifré

This is the first residence for the family Ruiz Picasso when they arrived in Barcelona in 1895. From the top of the building, Picasso painted some of his urban landscapes. The building is placed just in front of Llotja. Josep Xifré was a businessman who became rich thanks to farming products and fur and leather trade in New York. In 1840, he returned and settled in Barcelona and he put part of his savings to the construction of buildings for his family.

It’s a building with classical roots but there are also new Romanic elements, this style has got the name ¿isabelí¿. The façade is divided into five bodies, pointing out the central one and the ones in the articulated limits according to ionic pilasters.

The ground floor, with a portico all around it, was meant for shops whereas the upper floors were housings. El Porxo d’en Xifré, was named a building with architectonic national interest, it was the cho-sen model to show the first photograph ever taken in Spain.

8. Llotja del Mar

Llotja del Mar is the old headquarter for Escola Provincial de Belles Arts where Picasso worked as a teacher. In 1895 Picasso took the exam to get into and enrolled himself in Escola Superior de Pintura, Escultura I Gravat. It was in here where he started his relationship with Manuel Pallarés.

9. Santa Maria del Mar

In the district of Ribera there’s the last studio Picasso had before leaving definitely to Paris. In the Medieval time, there were rich traders and nobles in majestic palaces, from which Museu Picasso occu-pies 5 of them.

In the district of Ribera we find the church Santa Maria del Mar. The first reference to this church is on a document dated 998. This temple is by the architect Berenguer de Montagcut, and the first stone ever put as a coronation for the conquer of Cerdenya, that had the Catalan supremacy in the Mediterranean, started a hundred years before the conquer of Mallorca.

From the outside is the only Catalan Gothic great church that is fully completed. In its façades there are Catalan Gothic features which differ from the European Gothic.

In the Catalan Gothic there are horizontal lines and prevail the full spaces verses the empty ones, terraces with no roofs and preference for huge nude areas. The abutments are solid, just the opposite of what we see in the European Gothic Cathedrals; the towers are octagonal and are finished with flat roofs.

The inside of Santa Maria del Mar is of an extraor-dinary beauty and has acoustic conditions that make of this religious building a suitable space for

concerts, in which in special occasions, we can listen to jazz and classical and oriental music concerts.

10. Museu Picasso

It gathers the most important collection in the youth and training of the artist. Some works point out, posterior as the interpretative series of Las Meninas de Velázquez in 1957, ceramics and engraving works.

Museu Picasso in Barcelona is the reference centre to get to know the years of training of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Through more than five thousand five hundred works that form the permanent collection, the genius of the young artist booms. But on the other hand, Museu Picasso is also the witness of his link with Barcelona, a narrow link that lasted until his death.

Museu Picasso was opened in 1963 in the gothic palace Aguilar (Montcada, 15). In 1970, the Town Council enlarges the museum with the annexation to the palace Baró de Castellet (Montcada, 17) and later on with palace Meca (Montcada, 19). In 1999 a new enlargement of the museum is opened and habilitates Casa Mauri and the palace Finestres as a space for temporary exhibitions. These five palaces mentioned before are the continents of the present

Museu Picasso of Barcelona.

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