This morning the Bancaja Foundation presented the exhibition Picasso and the model. Jacqueline's profile, that reviews the constant presence of women as models in Pablo Picasso's production, focusing on the importance that Jacqueline Roque, his last wife and muse, had in his life and in his work since he met her in 1952 and throughout their coexistence until the painter's death in 1973. The presentation included the participation of the president of the Bancaja Foundation, Rafael Alcon, and the curators of the exhibition, Fernando Castro and Laura Campos. The exhibition offers a tour of more than 250 works that reveal the recurring representation that Picasso made of the theme of the painter and the model in oil paintings, graphic work, drawings and illustrated books, showing Picasso's obsession with meta-painting and the sensual fascination of the encounter with the model.
The works presented come from the collection of Picasso's graphic works belonging to the Bancaja Foundation, along with oil paintings and drawings from the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, the Picasso Museum in Malaga, the Picasso Foundation Birthplace Museum, BANK, the ICO Foundation and Guillermo de Osma Gallery.
Along with the works of Picasso, Photographs from the archives of Edward Quinn and David Douglas Duncan are on display, that show Picasso in his creative and family environment during the 20 years of the painter's relationship with Jacqueline, with special prominence of the residencies and workshops they shared in Cannes (California) y Mougins (Our Lady of Life).
Women were a constant motif in Picasso's work., who was able to capture countless emotions of the women he lived with, achieving more than 400 portraits of the woman who was his muse and second wife during the last two decades of his life. His representations of women are not limited to a mere reproduction of reality., but they immerse themselves in a deep reflection on identity, sexuality and the status of women in society.
The image of Jacqueline began to take center stage in Picasso's imagination after 1954. The painter deployed frenetic rehearsals using Jacqueline's face as a pretext, subjecting his profile to extraordinary metamorphoses, being able to repeat the motif to achieve unique differences. Picasso uses various optics to capture Jacqueline's face, resorting to primitivist forms, to post-cubist geometry or toying with classicism. The historical revisions also allow Picasso to represent his wife in the recreations he makes of some of the painters who most influenced him., like Courbet, El Greco, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, Van Gogh o Matisse.
Picasso's important facet as an engraver is present in the exhibition with works from the Suite 347 y the Suite 156, along with linocuts and a dozen books illustrated by the artist, among which are Carnet de la Californie, Le Carmen des Carmen and Les dames de Mougins. On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalog has been published with the reproduction of works that are part of the exhibition and texts from the curators. Within its cultural and artistic mediation program, The Bancaja Foundation offers guided tours for the general public and groups.
The exhibition Picasso and the model. Jacqueline's profile can be visited at the Bancaja Foundation headquarters in Valencia (Tetuan Square, 23) of the 20 September 2024 al 2 March 2025.
