Southern sons
Masterpieces ... some of Picasso's work on display at the museum.
Photo: AFP
Carol West follows in the footsteps of Andalucia's most famous.
Malaga was once a good place to escape from. In 1881, Pablo Picasso's lust for life was born here before he exchanged a Franco-controlled Spain for liberal France while Antonio Banderas left family and friends when he crossed over from Spanish art-house to mainstream Hollywood.
Known for many years as the gateway to the Costa del Sol, these two world-famous sons, together with an intense urban renewal program, are transforming it from a transit point into a destination.
The tipping point came in 1994 when Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, the painter's daughter-in-law and grandson, leant a body of Picasso's work to Malaga to stage an exhibition. This hugely successful event, coupled with the promise of a donation of 155 works, persuaded the city fathers to create a unique museum to honour Picasso's birthplace.
Since it opened in 2004 the Picasso Museum has been attracting 340,000 visitors a year, a fact not lost on The New York Times. Malaga made the cut on their Hot Travel Destinations List for 2008, one of only a handful of European cities to be included.
Created within the walls of the 16th century Moorish Buenavista Palace, New York architect Richard Gluckman collaborated with local architects and engineers to create a pristine space to display one of the 20th century's most influential artists. From Cubism to ceramics, large canvases of voluptuously deconstructed women to simple sculptures, the permanent collection is breathtaking in its range of styles and techniques mastered by The Master.
Displayed chronologically from his teenage years to the end of his life, Picasso was quoted as saying. "It took 14 years to paint like Raphael but all my life to paint like a child."
The earliest work is a portrait of a young man painted at age 14. Like other artists Picasso was influenced by the Oceanique art shown in Paris at the Trocadero in 1907. The African and Pacific Islander masks on display show marked similarities to his early move into Cubism.
"This is Antonio Banderas's favourite museum, he comes here often," said our guide. "His favourite painting is Banista painted when Picasso was 90 years old and as the paintings were mainly family gifts, most are unsigned," she added.
According to Malagueno locals, Banderas is very much part of the community when he visits with his family, participating in religious festivals and encouraging its flourishing arts scene.
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