Picasso and Cubism in the ABANCA Art Collection

From 16 October the Museum is showing a selection of twelve works from the ABANCA collection. Entitled Picasso and Cubism, the exhibition brings together a group of five works by the Malaga-born master along with another three by the core members of the cubist movement: Braque, Juan Gris and Léger. Two paintings by Metzinger and María Blanchard, who also belonged to the French movement, a canvas by Manuel Ángeles Ortiz and a sculpture by Julio González complete the selection.

The exhibition spans the period from 1895 to 1963, beginning with a popular scene and a caricature painted by a very young Picasso in 1895 and a drawing executed in 1901 in Paris, where he had travelled that year to show his work at the Galerie Vollard. It continues with a selection of cubist works from the 1910s to the 1930s, among them María Blanchard’s Cubist Composition with Bottles (c.1918), Picasso’s Packet of Tobacco and Glass (1922), Juan Gris’s Black Grape (1923) and Braque’s Glass and Grapes (1930), ending with a canvas from the series ‘The painter and his model’ (1963–65) in which Picasso reflects on the creative process in itself.

Stemming from interest in preserving and disseminating knowledge of works by Galician artists, the ABANCA art collection gradually grew as Spanish and international pieces were purchased. As a result, it currently consists of 1,348 works by 239 artists including renowned figures such as Picasso, Braque, Léger, Miró, Dalí, Tàpies, Chillida and Barceló, among others.