From his native Malaga to the vast virtual world, the figure of Pablo Picasso is present today on a planetary scale on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. Among the most singular manifestations is that of cartoonists from 35 countries –from Germany to Argentina, from China to Colombia, from Costa Rica to Egypt, from Indonesia to Italy, from Israel to Russia, Ukraine or Uruguay–, who honor him with a virtual exhibition of comics inaugurated in Brazil.
Commissioned by Brazilian cartoonists, Picasso Among Us has 220 works in different styles, including portraits of the artist –in the photo, a caricature of the Peruvian Walter Toscano– and reinterpretations of some of his most famous paintings. Her cubist transgression “inspired” all illustrators, says the president of the Brazilian Association of Cartoonists, José Alberto Lovetro.
The works on display include contributions from famous Brazilian cartoonists, such as Chico Caruso or Ziraldo, as well as the Colombian Turcios or the Spanish Xaquín Marín. At the moment, blog.hqmix.com.br can be visited on the web, but the possibility of organizing face-to-face exhibitions in Spain and Brazil is being studied.
Beyond the shows and activities already announced for the Picasso Year, the Malaga Museum, which bears the name of the painter, has focused today on his facet of opposition to the war and its consequences. Thus, the Andalusian institution carries out a symbolic action in which a white dove, the universally known symbol of peace thanks to the work of the author of Gernika, takes flight shortly after dawn from the heart of the building, the courtyard of the Buenavista Palace, in a clear reference to the nonsense of the war in Ukraine.
"War conflicts sadly continue to be a topical issue in the world with the consequent loss of human lives and forced migrations," says the museum, which is now 20 years old.
And if in Horta de Sant Joan the Center Picasso has found and incorporated into its art gallery eight evocations that the painter made of his first stay in the town of Terra Alta, which is 125 years old – the bous in the square, the dance of the jota, the houses, the women at the door of mass or the seaside, works carried out in Paris in 1901, when he sought refuge in his memories of Horta to escape the pain of the suicide of his friend and painter Carles Casagemes-, in Antibes, the French museum that bears his name, is dedicating an exhibition to his last creative years, with icons such as El Matador.
Also, in Naples, the Archaeological Museum explores the influence of Italy on Picasso's work. And on the 5th, CaixaForum premiered the documentary Picasso and bullfighting, directed by the prestigious filmmaker Hilka Sinning. The film is produced by the German company Kobalt Productions and the Spanish Artico Distribution, with the participation of the international channels ZDF and ARTE in Germany, France Télevisions and RTS in Switzerland.
