Museo Picasso Malaga will present Picasso’s first wife Olga Khokhlova and her story

From 26th February to 2nd June 2019, Museo Picasso Málaga will present Picasso’s first wife Olga Khokhlova and her story, in the first show of its 2019 exhibition calendar: Olga Picasso.

The exhibition came about from the letters and photographs found in the travel trunk of the Russian dancer, who was Bernard Ruiz-Picasso’s grandmother, and it covers the years she and Picasso were together as a couple. It puts into perspective the creation of some of Picasso’s greatest works, and reconstrued this body of work in the context of a personal story that developed alongside another, political and social, story.

Approximately 350 items will be shown in the exhibition, including paintings, works on paper, photographs, letters, documents and films. It has been jointly curated by Émilia Philippot, conservator of the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Joachim Pissarro, professor of art history and director of Hunter College Art Gallery (New York); and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, co-chair of the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, FABA, president of the Executive Board of Museo Picasso Málaga and member of its Board of Trustees.

This touring exhibition is the product of collaboration between four international institutions. The exhibition shown in Museo Picasso Málaga was organized by Musée national Picasso-Paris, in collaboration with Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte. It was seen at Museé national Picasso-Paris from 21st March to 3rd September 2017, and at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow from 19th November 2018 to 4th February 2019, before coming to Museo Picasso Málaga from 26th February to 2nd June, after which it will run from 18th June to 22nd September at CaixaForum Madrid.