A masterpiece of engraving, the ICO exhibits Picasso's Vollard suite
As in many other fields, Madrid seems determined to establish itself definitively as one of the world's major artistic capitals. The so-called golden mile of art, because it is home to three museums of the stature of the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía, on that partial stretch of its great north-south avenue, is also integrating other venues into its surroundings, whose collections and exhibitions represent a fluid waterfall of the great names of art in all its expressions.
Among those that have carved out a niche for themselves in this short list of those that house the best, it is worth mentioning the ICO, which has put Picasso's Vollard Suite, acquired by the institution in 1991, on public display, and which constitutes one of the few complete sets of this work in the world.
Ambroise Vollard was the first art dealer to appreciate the talent of the Malaga-born painter in 1901, whose works he exhibited for the first time alongside those of Francisco Iturrino, as he also did with Cezanne and Matisse, as well as hanging works by Renoir, Bonnard, Marius de Zayas, Dufy and Rouault on the walls of his shop on rue Lafitte in Paris.
Beyond the commercial interest, the French gallery owner and the Spanish painter became friends, fostering an intense collaboration, the high point of which is precisely the Vollard Suite, which, however, was not commissioned by the dealer to the artist but rather the result of a friendly exchange: In 1937 Vollard obtained the initial series of 97 copper engravings of the Suite in exchange for a significant number of paintings he owned, which Picasso wished to include in his own private collection.
The work is a display of mastery in the handling of the different engraving techniques. Picasso's position in this respect is halfway between the old masters, who did everything themselves, and contemporary artists who, in general, require the technical assistance of a professional. Picasso effectively left the most complex phases - varnishing, etching, etc. - to the professionals, but he never allowed them to add anything of their own to the interpretation of the work: only he could play with what he had done, be it etching, aquatint, burin or drypoint.
The Vollard Suite narrates day by day the intimate life and the evolution of Picasso's art: his aesthetic concerns, his amorous enthusiasms, his moods and his questions as an artist in relation to the model, the work and his lover, Marie Thérèse Walter. He had met her in 1927 in a chance encounter in the Parisian rue de la Boétie while she was out shopping. She was 17 years old, Picasso was 45. She agreed to let the artist paint her portrait, the beginning of a clandestine relationship, given that Picasso was married to Olga Khokhlova at the time, and which would last until 1935, when, shortly after the birth of his daughter Maya, the artist would meet his new partner, Dora Maar.
Visitors who want to see the exhibition (it will be on display until 20 July) will also find a selection of engravings and paintings by artists such as Juan Genovés, Eduardo Arroyo, Manolo Valdés, Miguel Campano, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, Lucio Muñoz, Juan Barjola and Darío Villalba, great names that forged the language and trends of contemporary art in Spain in the second half of the 20th century. All these works were acquired by the ICO with the main mission for which its museum was created: to conserve them and make them known to the general public.
Together with the Vollard Suite they form an intense exhibition dialogue, which demonstrates the magnitude of the inexhaustible artistic explosion of so many names that saw the light of day in our country.
