Emmanuel Guigon (Besançon, 1959) will continue to lead the Museu Picasso in Barcelona for another two years by decision of the Museu Picasso Foundation, which thus ratifies its confidence in the art historian who took over the reins of the center in 2016 and who in 2023, coinciding With the Picasso Celebration, with which the artist’s fiftieth anniversary has been commemorated around the world, it has once again exceeded one million visitors, recovering pre-pandemic numbers and increasing 2022 results by 30%.
Guigon, who upon arriving set himself the goal of opening the Picasso to the city and ending the image of a museum for tourists, has also seen an increase in the local public, 150,000 local visitors, which represents 16% of the total. Throughout the year, in which the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Museu Picasso was also celebrated, it has presented two exceptional exhibitions, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: dealer and editor (120,000 visits) and Miró-Picasso, the great exhibition that It is held simultaneously at the Fundació Joan Miró and since its inauguration in October, it has attracted 120,000 visits to date. For its part, the Carmen Calvo anthology, the first to be held in a Barcelona museum, exceeded the figure of 350,000.
Outside its walls, the Picasso of Barcelona has been present as a guest in Madrid with two exhibitions: Picasso in photo. Archives of the Museu Picasso of Barcelona, ??which inaugurated the PhotoEspaña photography festival and Diego Velázquez invites Pablo Picasso… and Carmen Calvo, at the Casa de Velázquez, where it can be seen until February.
Looking ahead to 2024, the Picasso Museum is working on creating an association of friends with the aim of further encouraging local public attendance at the facilities and participation in the public program of activities. It is also preparing a program that will continue to promote Picasso’s heritage and work and support contemporary artists who can question and dialogue with Picasso’s work.
