Felipe VI and Letizia: night of poetry and art at the inauguration of the Picasso Year for the 50th anniversary of his death

Opening ceremony of the Picasso Year. Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. At the entrance to the art gallery, at door C2 of the auditorium, the press colleagues talked about the attendance of the emeritus at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. It was the news of the day. The King and Queen presided over this Monday, September 12, the first official event that marks the beginning of an immense program to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo de Picasso. President Pedro Sánchez has also joined the evening.

Paola Dominguín, Pablo Picasso’s goddaughter, has been in charge of leading the ceremony. Dressed in white and with the Picasso dove of peace pinned to her hair like a sculptural headdress, she has started her speech by citing Pablo, the man who adored worldly passions, such as “gazpacho, potato omelette and Bulls”.

The event hosts the performance of various fragments of the artist’s best-known theatrical work. The desire caught by the tail (1941), a piece written during the occupation of Paris. The assembly has been carried out by Miguel Cuerda for the company La Zona.

The Picasso Celebration will dominate the 2023 cultural program and will set the artistic agenda for the year. With this north, the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, and his French counterpart, Romanian Abdul Malak, have presented the many activities.

Tributes from the USA to Germany

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the most relevant and influential plastic artist in contemporary painting, in addition to the Reina Sofía, different venues have been brought together to host 42 exhibitions by the artist: the art galleries of the Prado Museum, the Thyssen Bornemisza, the Museo Picasso in Barcelona, Malaga, the Museum of Fine Arts in A Coruña, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Miró Foundation, the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Mapfre Foundation. The Musée National Picasso-Paris joins this event to highlight this unique date in the work of the universal Malaga native. Tribute to his work will also be paid in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Romania and Belgium.