Picasso and Dali first came together in an exhibition – ElEspectador.com

The work of the two Spanish masters of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, will be exhibited together in a show in Barcelona, ​​presented on Thursday, deepening their productive artistic relationship before their separation by political differences.

The exhibition runs until June 28 at the Picasso museum in the Spanish city, is organized in conjunction with the Dalí Museum in Saint Petersburg (Florida, USA) and is the first dedicated to analyze their artistic confluences through 78 works.

Thirty of them are on loan from private collectors and had not been exposed for many years, while others come from museums like the Reina Sofia in Madrid or the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

“Much has been written about the rivalry of both artists but I hope this shows another look nicer reality,” said in presenting the director of the Picasso Museum, Bernardo Laniado-Romero.

Faced from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a communist and –Picasso Dalí had sympathy for the dictator Francisco Franco–, the exhibition focuses on the first stage of their relationship (1926-1939), which are evident his personal and artistic fluid contact.

Before meeting him on his first trip to Paris in 1926, Picasso’s influence on Dalí was palpable in works like ” Venus and cupids “or” Bathers Llaner is “full of female nudes clearly inspired Picasso.

But the turning point in their relationship came in the wake of their first meeting in Picasso’s studio in French capital. “I come to see you before the Louvre,” he said Dalí to Malaga, who replied. “Not you wrong”, explained the Catalan in his book “The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí”

This meeting allows Dalí reach a more mature and canvas artistic language “Mesa to the sea. Homage to Erik Satie” where the surrealist genius and showed his interest in Cubism. “The possibility of going to the workshop of Picasso represented for the young Dalí an important step towards the Cubist language and turn the forefront,” said the curator William Jeffet. Picasso was also surprised by the talent of young costearle reached his first trip to the United States.

Through paintings, sculptures, collages and sketches, the exhibition traces the confluences between Picasso and Dali as his portrait Spanish bloody conflict portrayed for example in “Guernica” by Picasso and “Premonition of Civil War” Dalí-both absent from the collection but present through bocetos- and dialogue with the work of Diego Velázquez, another great teacher Spanish.

Attempts to reconnect were manifold by Dalí, who wrote over a hundred letters and postcards to the artist in exile in France, now collected in the book “Picasso and I”, published to coincide with the collection.

“He has said that hated him, they parted but I think it has been greatly exaggerated. There were two opposite characters, two very important egos, but there was always respect,” he told AFP his editor, Victor Fernandez.

The chiaroscuro of their relationship are reflected on the canvas that closes the exhibition, “Portrait of Pablo Picasso in the XXI century” Dali, a grotesque representation of the Malaga genius who still arouses debates among experts about whether it was a tribute or a provocation.