Picasso Museum Malaga

Picasso Museum Malaga

The Picasso Museum in Malaga is, for many, a turning point for tourism in Malaga. The museum was inaugurated in 2003, when tourism in Malaga was almost exclusively sun and beach tourism. Thanks to the inauguration of this museum, a change of trend has taken place.

Malaga has 36 museums, which has made it one of the most attractive destinations for its mix of good weather and excellent beaches and the wide range of cultural offerings.

Picasso Museum Malaga history

The Malaga-Picasso relationship was always very close, as the painter spent the first 10 years of his life in Malaga and returned on several occasions. According to the experts, his Malaga roots shaped his character and were visible throughout his career.. Picasso could not return to live in Spain because of his political situation but he always made it clear that he wanted a part of his work to be in Malaga.

The Picasso Museum could have arrived much earlier, since in 1953, Juan Temboury (provincial delegate of fine arts of Malaga), requested by letter to Picasso the donation of two paintings per style. Pablo's reply was that he would not send two works but two lorries full of worksHowever, the political situation of the country prevented the inauguration of the first museum dedicated exclusively to Picasso in his native city.

What do we mean by the political situation of the country? Picasso was openly close to republican ideals, so during Franco's dictatorship a museum dedicated to him was not allowed to open.

One of his most famous works that shows us his position is Guernica (currently in the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid), a painting that he painted in 1937 and which represents his repulsion towards the bombing of Guernica, in fact at the presentation of the painting Picasso said "Painting is not for decorating flats, it is an instrument of defensive and offensive warfare against the enemy".

In 1992, Christine Ruiz-Picasso, daughter-in-law of the artist, resumed contacts with the city for the inauguration of the Picasso Museum in Malaga. Christine offered to donate and lend works to the museum, as this was Picasso's wish. Today, almost 17 years after its inauguration, the museum has more than 6 million visitors.

Picasso Museum Malaga opening hours

Like many of Malaga's museums, the opening hours depend on the time of year:

• September and October: Monday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm.
• From November to February: Monday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm.
• From March to June: Monday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm.
• July and August: Monday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm.

Picasso Museum Malaga price

- General admission:

• Permanent collection general admission: 7€.
• Museo Picasso Málaga temporary collection: depending on the exhibition between 5€ and 10€.
• Combined ticket, permanent + temporary collection: Around 12€.

- Reduced: Seniors over 65 years old, Euro Youth Card holders and accredited students under 26 years old.

• Permanent collection: 6€.

• Museo Picasso Málaga temporary collection: during March 2020, 6€.

• Combined: 9€.

Can I visit the museum for free?

Luckily, almost all the museums in Malaga usually have a weekly slot in which you can visit them for free. The Picasso Museum could not be less and offers several possibilities to visit it for free.

If you want to save money and you are lucky enough to coincide with the free visit do not hesitate to do so, but from green tours Malaga, we recommend that if you want to see the museum quietly and enjoying the visit you pay the entrance fee. If you are an art lover it is a museum that is worth spending the price of admission as it is not very expensive.

The options to visit the museum for free are:

• Admission to the Picasso Museum is free every Sunday of the year, the last 2 hours of opening.

• Andalusia Day, 28th February.

• International Museum Day, 18 May.

• World Tourism Day, 27 September.

Picasso Museum Malaga telephone and address

Telephone number: 952 127 600.

Website: click here .

Address: Palacio de Buenavista, calle San Agustín 8, 29015, Málaga. A 2 minute walk from the Roman Theatre.

Picasso Museum Malaga children

In the Picasso Museum in Malaga, they have also thought about children and how to allow them to enjoy the museum and the artist.

While the adults enjoy the permanent collection of the museum through a guided tour that also includes access to the exclusive terraces of the palace, the children will visit the rooms and enjoy an art workshop. At the end of the visit, adults can enter the workshop to see their children's works and even take them home with them!

This visit is available on weekends, for information, you can do it through a form on their website. We put the link here to facilitate the search:

Learn more about Picasso

If you want to know more about Picasso before visiting the museum, we recommend you to watch this report of his life, which tells in detail his life and his motivations, from here we recommend it as we loved it. By the end of the video, you'll feel like you know a lot more about Picasso and you'll understand much better his constant change of styles.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso biography

Pablo Picasso was considered by many to be the most important artist of the 20th century. He was the creator of cubism but he was also very famous for exerting a great influence on other great artists of his time. If you want to learn more about this genius born in Malaga don't miss this article.

Where was Pablo Picasso born?

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga on October 25, 1881 into a traditional petit bourgeois family. His father, Jose Ruiz Blasco, was a painter and academic and was Pablo's main figure during his childhood, as he grew up marked by the admiration he felt for him.

Pablo spent his time in his father's studio observing him. He started painting at the early age of 5 years old and unlike other children for whom painting was an entertainment, for Pablo it became the passion of his life, he painted compulsively and thanks to the incredible photographic memory he had he was able to paint everything he saw.

Don José Ruiz Blasco used to take Pablo to bullfights, and when he was 8 years old he painted his first oil painting. As you can see in the photograph, Picasso focused on the essential and schematized with the public.

When Picasso was 10 years old, his family was forced to leave Malaga to live in La Coruña, as his father found a better paid job as a painter. While Pablo took refuge in painting and was stimulated by landscapes, his father went into a period of depression as he was unable to adapt to his new life.

In 1895, when Pablo was 14 years old, his father asked him one day to finish a painting of pigeons for him. When he saw the result, Don José was astonished to see the result and realized that his career as a painter was a failure. The pupil had surpassed the master. In a solemn gesture, his father gives him his palettes and brushes.

When did Pablo Picasso die?

After having triumphed in painting and having lived in cities that were close to his bohemian and artistic personality, such as Paris and Barcelona, Pablo Picasso died in 1973, at the age of 91, in the French town of Mougins, France, his place of residence.

Although he was born in Malaga and lived in Spain until he was 20 years old, Picasso spent most of his life in France. Although Pablo would have liked to spend the last years of his life in Spain, it was not possible because of his known affinity with communism and his criticism of Francisco Franco.

Why did Picasso renounce his paternal surname?

Let's remember that Pablo Picasso's father's name was José Ruiz, so it would have been normal that Pablo would have been remembered as Pablo Ruiz and not as Pablo Picasso. It is said that as his father was an artist and signed his works with the surname Ruiz, Pablo wanted to have his own personal stamp, so he decided to use his mother's surname.

Pablo Picasso and his works

How was cubism born?

There were several factors that pushed Picasso to create Cubism. The first time cubism appeared was in the portrait he made of Gertrude Stein, Pablo's protector and friend. Picasso could not find the key to the portrait and realized that since photography already existed, it was useless to try to make a portrait, since he had to capture a series of features that could not be seen in the photos in order to differentiate himself.

The key moment in the creation of Cubism was when Pablo visited the ethnological museum in Paris in 1907. There was a series of African masks that caught his attention. He realized that they managed to transmit a series of features that would later be key for Picasso to leave his mark.

Guernica Pablo Picasso

Guernica is probably Picasso's most famous single work, but what is its origin?

In 1937, Picasso was the person chosen to create a large mural representing the Second Spanish Republic at the international exhibition in Paris.

Initially Picasso was not clear about the theme, but when the bombing of Guernica (Vizcaya) took place during the Spanish Civil War on April 26, 1937, he understood that this would be the theme to represent.

The work represents the terrible suffering that war inflicts on human beings. Although Picasso wanted the work to be in Spain, he understood that this would not be possible until the end of Franco's dictatorship.

Pablo was affiliated to the communist party and on numerous occasions he made cartoons openly criticizing Franco, so the arrival of Guernica in Spain would have to wait.

After being exhibited at the international exhibition in Paris, Guernica travelled around the United Kingdom and spent several years in the United States, notably at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. It continued to travel around Europe and America, until 1981, when it was moved to its current home, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.