“Yo, Picasso”, on display in Barcelona until the 1st of September

The Museu Picasso celebrates its 50th anniversary and, apart from the exhibitions especially organised to commemorate the event, has included Yo, Picasso, the first extensive monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist’s self-portraits.

This world premiere is the result of three years of research by the exhibition’s curators, Eduard Vallès and Isabel Cendoya, in close collaboration with various members of the Picasso family, who have shown considerable commitment to the event. As Vallès explains, the artist’s daughter was so excited by the preparative dossier presented to her in her home that she instantly entrusted the presenters with one of the self-portraits from her collection.

The exhibition includes a total of 90 works by the painter, who often signed the canvases with a categorical “”Yo””, and includes self-portraits, self-presentations, photographs and other pieces in styles ranging from academic classicism to abstraction, the blue period and surrealism, in paintings, sketches, etchings, etc.

Among the highlights are the multitude of pieces from the period when the artist lived in Barcelona, including the famous self-portrait of 1907, which hadn’t left the Prague National Gallery in 15 years, or other unknown works such as Picasso with a top hat.

This chronological exhibition encompasses both formal works from the artist’s various artistic phases as well as more human works that portray the artist’s own existential adventure, and ends with the realisation, shortly before his death, of a series of self-portraits that are tangible reflections old age and physical deterioration.