Picasso's Barcelona

Picasso's Barcelona

Barcelona's claim to Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) has been contested by Málaga, the painter's birthplace; by Madrid, where Guernica hangs; and even by the town of Gernika itself, victim of the 1937 Luftwaffe saturation bombing that inspired the famous canvas. Picasso, a staunch anti-Franco opponent after the war, refused to return to Franco's Spain. In turn, the Franco regime allowed no public display of Picasso's work until 1961, when the artist's Sardana frieze at Barcelona's Architects' Guild was unveiled. Picasso did not set foot on Spanish soil for the last 39 years of his life.

The artist spent a sporadic but formative period of his youth in Barcelona (between 1895 and 1904), after which he moved to Paris to join its fertile art scene. Picasso's father had been appointed art professor at the Reial Acadèmia de les Belles Arts in La Llotja, and Picasso, a precocious draftsman, began advanced classes in the academy at the age of 15. A few years later, working in different studios between academic stints in Madrid, the young artist first exhibited at Els Quatre Gats, a tavern still thriving on Carrer Montsió. Much intrigued with the Bohemian life of Barcelona's popular neighborhoods, Picasso's early cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, was inspired not by the French town but by the Barcelona street Carrer d'Avinyó, then known for its brothel. After his move to Paris, Picasso returned occasionally to Barcelona until his last visit in summer of 1934.

Considering Picasso's off-and-on tenure in Barcelona, followed by his 39-year self-imposed exile, it's remarkable that Barcelona and Picasso should be so intertwined in the world's perception of the city. The Picasso Museum, although an excellent visit, is only the fourth-most important art venue on any art connoisseur's list of Barcelona galleries. The museum was the brainchild of the artist's longtime friend Jaume Sabartés, who believed that his vast private collection of Picasso works should be made public. After much wrangling with the Franco regime, who were loath to publicly recognize such a prominent anti-Franco figure and author of a work titled The Dream and the Lie of Franco (1937), the Picasso Museum finally opened in 1963. Iconoserveis Culturals (C. Muntaner 185, Eixample. 93/410-1405. www.iconoserveis.com) gives walking tours through the key spots in Picasso's Barcelona life, covering studios, galleries, taverns, the Picasso family apartments, and the painter's favorite haunts and hangouts.