THE Bancaja Foundation presented the exhibition Picasso and the Model this morning in Valencia. Jacqueline’s profile, which looks back at the constant presence of women as models in the production of Pablo Picassoemphasizing the importance that Jacqueline Roque, his last wife and muse, had in his life and work since they 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 Alcón, and the curators of the exhibition, Fernando Castro and Laura Campos.
The exhibition offers a journey of more than 250 works that reveal Picasso’s recurring representation of the theme of the painter and the model in oil paintings, graphic works, 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 Foundationas well as oil paintings and drawings from the Museo Nacional Centro d’Arte Reina Sofía, the Picasso Museum of Barcelona, the Picasso Museum of Málaga, the Picasso Foundation Casa Natal Museum, ABANCA, the ICO Foundation and the Guillermo de Osma Gallery.
Alongside Picasso’s works, photographs from the archives of Edward Quinn and David Douglas Duncan are exhibited, showing Picasso in his creative and family environment during the painter’s 20-year relationship with Jacqueline, with a particular focus on the residences and studios they shared in Cannes (La Californie) and Mougins (Notre-Dame-de-Vie).
Women were a constant motif in the work of Picassowho was able to capture countless emotions of the women he lived with, creating 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 simple reproduction of reality, but are immersed in a deep reflection on identity, sexuality and the condition of women in society.
The image of Jacqueline began to occupy the forefront of Picasso’s imagination from 1954. The painter deployed frenetic repetitions using Jacqueline’s face as a pretext, subjecting her profile to extraordinary metamorphoses, and being able to repeat the motif to obtain singular differences.
Picasso uses various optics to capture Jacqueline’s face, resorting to primitivist forms, post-cubist geometry or playing with classicism. historical reviews They also allowed Picasso to represent his wife in the reconstructions he made of some of the painters who most influenced him, such as Courbet, El Greco, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, Van Gogh and Matisse.
Picasso’s important facet as an engraver is present in the exhibition with works from Suite 347 and Suite 156, as well as linocuts and a dozen books illustrated by the artist, including Carnet de la Californie, Le Carmen des Carmen and Les dames de Mougins.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue was published with the reproduction of the works included in the exhibition and the texts of the curators. As part of its cultural and artistic mediation programme, 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 (Plaza Tetuán, 23) from September 20, 2024 to March 2, 2025.
