Musée Picasso Paris

thumb|Picasso Museum, [[Paris (Hotel Salé, 1659)]]

thumb|Picasso Museum, Paris, main entrance

Musée Picasso Paris (; ) is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé () on the Rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris, France, dedicated to the work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The museum collection includes more than 5,000 works of art including paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints, engravings, and notebooks, as well as tens of thousands of archived pieces from Picasso's personal repository, including the artist's photographic archive, personal papers, correspondence, and author manuscripts. A large portion of items were donated by Picasso's family after his death, in accord with the wishes of the artist, who lived in France from 1905 to 1973.

Building

The hôtel particulier that houses the collection was built between 1656 and 1659 for Pierre Aubert, seigneur de Fontenay, a tax farmer who became rich collecting the gabelle or salt tax (the name of the building means "salted"). The architect was Jean Boullier from Bourges. The sculpture was carried out by the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy and by Martin Desjardins.

The mansion has changed hands several times by sale or inheritance although the occupants have included the Embassy of the Republic of Venice (1671), then François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi. The mansion was expropriated by the State during the French Revolution and in 1815 it became a school, in which Balzac studied. In 1829 the mansion housed the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. It also housed the municipal École des Métiers d'Art. It was acquired by the City of Paris in 1964, and was granted historical monument status in 1968. The mansion was restored by Bernard Vitry and Bernard Fonquernie of the Monument historique in 1974–1980.

The Hotel Salé was selected for the Musée Picasso after some contentious civic and national debate. A competition was held to determine who would design the facilities. The proposal from Roland Simounet was selected in 1976 from amongst the four that were submitted. Other proposals were submitted by Roland Castro and the GAU (Groupement pour l'Architecture et l'Urbanisme), Jean Monge, and Carlo Scarpa. For the most part, the interior of the mansion (which had undergone significant modifications) was restored to its former spacious state. This is complemented by Picasso's own personal art collection of works by other artists, including Renoir, Cézanne, Degas, Rousseau, Seurat, de Chirico and Matisse. It also contains some Iberian bronzes and a good collection of African art, by which Picasso was greatly inspired. The museum also contains a large number of works that Picasso painted after his seventieth birthday.

Presentation of the works

There are a few rooms with thematic presentations, but the museum largely follows a chronological sequence, displaying painting, drawings, sculptures and prints. Other items include photographs, manuscripts, newspaper clippings and photographs to provide additional contextual information. Since 1985 more than 1,000 exhibits have been bought by the museum.

In a period of economic crisis and government cutbacks on funding for culture, longtime director Anne Baldassari still managed to raise $41 million for the makeover by exporting artworks for exhibition abroad. Upon re-opening, the museum is expected to finance more than 60 percent of its annual budget.

Governance

In 2014, Baldassari was dismissed by Aurélie Filippetti, the French minister of culture, after mounting criticism of her management. New director Laurent Le Bon reopened the museum in September 2014 following a €52 million five-year renovation dogged by delays and escalating costs.

Expansion

By the end of the ongoing construction work, the museum's public space was to nearly triple, to around 58,000 square feet, by moving staff offices to a newly purchased building.

References

External links

Official website in English