Malaga: Pablo Picasso

We cross Plaza de la Merced and take Calle Granada to Santiago Church, Pablo Picasso’s baptismal place.

A short walk of a few hundred metres allows us to pause halfway to notice an old pharmacy on the corner of Plaza de la Merced and Calle Granada.

The old Farmacia Bustamante, once called Farmacia Mamely, is a famous corner for the artist’s family. It was the place habitually frequented by Pablo’s father, José Ruiz. Many of Malaga’s cultural figures and artists, including Pablo Picasso’s father, used to meet daily in the back of the Farmacia.

We continue along Calle Granada until we come across, in its beauty, the Church of Santiago where, on 10 November 1881, the artist was baptised with the full name of Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios y Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad. This is among the most beautiful churches in Malaga, with remarkable Baroque interiors and a magnificent Mudejar-style tower.

Pablo Picasso’s life spanned two world wars and moves in the triangle of Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, where he lived his most radiant period of fame and notoriety. In 1901 he began to sign his works ‘Picasso’, using his mother’s surname.

His art is marked by moments characterised by different shades of his own life.

In his early years, the colour blue was predominant in his works. Shades of this colour, poverty, blindness and female nudity were at the heart of each of his works during this period. The gloominess represents a moment of depression for the artist, apparently due to the death of a close friend by suicide. An example of the artistic style of this period can be seen in ‘The Old Guitarist’.

In the following years up to 1906, a pink colouring prevails, a sign of greater relaxation and less melancholy than in the previous period. Among the subjects of the works from this period, it is possible to observe clowns, harlequins, circus people and experimentation with primitivism; an example of this, is the ‘Boy with a pipe’. The African influence prevails in his works until 1909, with its highest expression in ‘Les Damoiselles d’Avignon’.

We now make our way to where Pablo Picasso’s artistic vein can be seen at closer look: the Museum.