Fundación MAPFRE recently opened a double exhibition that brings together works from the sixteenth century Italian painter Jacopo Carucci (better known as Pontormo) and Pablo Picasso. This exhibition will run until May 11, 2014 at Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid and entrance is free of charge.
Picasso: In the Studio is an overview of this artist’s work based on the different studios where he worked and lived. Picasso: In the Studio contains pieces from around 25 prestigious public and private institutions. The show opens with the famous Self-portrait from 1906 and closes with another self-portrait from 1969, Homme au tabouret, whose only public showing was in the first exhibition held at the Palais des Papes d’Avignon in 1970. These two works, in which Picasso depicts himself as a painter, gazing fixedly at the viewer, are separated by more than 60 years of artistic activity, during which the artist worked at different studios in the Bateau-Lavoir, Boulevard de Clichy, Boulevard Raspail, La Boétie, Boisgeloup, La Californie and finally Mougins.
The Pontormo exhibition features an array of 69 drawings—the majority loaned by the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, which document every stage in Pontormo’s career and all the different drawing media he used. Pontormo was considered to be one of the greatest exponents of “Mannerism.” The selected drawings will also be accompanied by a rare gem: Pontormo’s Diary, held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, which has never been shown outside Italy until now. This will be the first show of Pontormo’s work ever held in Spain, organised to coincide with the 520th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
Fundación MAPFRE is a non-profit organization, created in 1976 by MAPFRE, the largest Spanish insurance group. Middlesea Insurance is a member of the MAPFRE Group.
