“Pablo Picasso: Exile and Nostalgia.” The new exhibition of MOMus, opens its doors to the public of Thessaloniki.
Focusing on the friendship between the famous Pablo Picasso and his political exile friend, Eugenio Arias, the exhibition "Pablo Picasso: Exile and Nostalgia" opens at the MOMus Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection for the dates 12 July 2024 – 10 November 2024 including 98 artworks of Museo Casa Natal Picasso collections in Malaga.
The chronicle of their friendship
The love for the Mediterranean, the bullfights and the homeland, solidarity towards the compatriot, fellow fighter and (co-)exile brings the two men together and initiates a strong friendship which is reflected in the long-lasting correspondence of the two friends.
The first pages of their diverse friendship were written in Vallauris in the South of France, where Eugenio Arias had fled as a left-wing politician in exile from Franco's regime and worked as a barber. It was there, in Vallauris, on France's Côte d'Azur, that Picasso had found his own retreat in the Mediterranean after the end of World War II.
The friendly correspondence between the two men, which peaked between 1962 and 1968, sheds light on the turbulent period of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent period (1936-1952). This correspondence became known shortly after Eugenio Arias' death, when his family found a bundle of sheets of the Spanish monarchist and right-wing newspaper ,ABC ,in which Picasso had inserted drawings and signs in the margins of the chronicles of the bullfights, and handwritten the surname 'Arias' as an address to the recipient of this particular correspondence. The family of Picasso's close friend decided in 2017 to grant the Documentation Centre of the Picasso’s Birthplace Museum (Museo Casa Natal Picasso) and deposited an important collection of drawings, engravings, illustrated books and other materials.
What you can expect to see in the exhibition
Among the exhibits that visitors to MOMus will have the opportunity to see is a copy of the book Dibujos y Escrutons, written by Picasso and published in 1961 by Camilo José Cela, a Spanish author who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989. In 1966 Picasso decided to have this book painted and give it as a birthday present to his beloved friend Eugenio Arias. The pages are distinguished by 35 painted pages of drawings, arabesques and marker pen creations. Among them is the striking Bearded Man, a male form with brushstrokes that seem to follow the hairs of the beard, a work perfectly linked to his friend's capacity as a barber.
Picasso's support for the Spanish people is also evident in illustrated books such as Sueño y mentira de Franco (The Dream and the Lie of Franco) (1937), which will be among the objects in the exhibition. Through this and other important illustrated books, Picasso was able to use his poems and illustrations against the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco. With his resistance art he helped well-known resistance and anti-Nazi poets and writers, such as Paul Eluard or Robert Desnos, to spread the cause. For the first time, two surrealist poems by Picasso himself are published in Greek, translated by Adri Michail.
In collaboration with the Museo Casa Natal Picasso in Malaga, from 12 July to 10 November 2024, a number of drawings, engravings and ceramics from Malaga will be exhibited at the MOMus Museum, in the Lazariston Monastery in Thessaloniki, many of which will be presented for the first time outside the Spanish borders, while 450 artworks from Kostakis Collection are in the hands of the Agencia Pública Para la Gestión de la Casa Natal de Pablo R. Picasso y Otros Equipamientos Museísticos y Culturales Ayuntamiento de Málaga to form part of the temporary exhibition entitled: "Utopia and Vanguard. Russian Art in the Kostakis Collection of the MOMus Museum of Modern Art" from 4 July 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday: 10:00-18:00
Wednesday: 12:00-20:00
Monday: CLOSED
Info: MOMus-Museum of Modern Art- Kostakis Collection, Kolokotroni 21, Moni Lazariston, Thessaloniki.
Tel: +302310-589143
