New masterpieces. La dation Maya Ruiz-Picasso

HOMMAGE

Le 20 décembre 2022 disparaissait Maya Ruiz-Picasso, fille de Pablo Picasso et de Marie-Thérèse Walter. A sa naissance en 1935, María de la Concepción inspire à son père une énergie créative sans précédent. Picasso n’a de cesse de représenter sa fille, de son plus jeune âge jusqu’à son adolescence, cherchant à percer les mystères de son enfance et à retranscrire sa joie et son insouciance. Celle-ci a par ailleurs accompagné son père dans de nombreux projets dont le tournage du Mystère Picasso de Clouzot. 
Maya Widmaier Picasso Ruiz-Picasso avait inauguré la réouverture du Musée Picasso en 2014 ainsi que l'exposition "Picasso 1932" dédiée à sa mère Marie-Thérèse Walter. En 2021, elle fait une dation à l’Etat français de 9 chefs-d’œuvre de sa collection, estimant qu’elles doivent intégrer les collections nationales du musée dédié à son père.  
Les deux expositions actuelles du musée lui sont consacrées et dédiées. 
Le Musée national Picasso - Paris adresse ses sincères condoléances à ses proches ainsi qu’à sa famille, notamment ses trois enfants, Olivier, Richard, Diana.

This exhibition celebrates the addition of nine masterpieces to the French national collections – six paintings, two sculptures and a sketchbook – via the country’s gifts-in-lieu scheme, which was introduced on 31 December 1968, allowing inheritance tax to be paid in kind. This unique acquisition mode is key to the very identity of Musée Picasso, which was founded in 1979 specifically to house the donation made by Pablo Picasso under this system.

The Maya Ruiz-Picasso donation, accepted by the French state in 2021 and made by the artist’s daughter with Marie-Thérèse Walter, born in 1935, is fully aligned with the museum’s founding history and governing ethos. Spanning several disciplines and covering a broad timespan, from 1895 to 1971, it represents a major addition to the nation’s heritage and is also a unique opportunity for the museum to supplement its collection in a way that is perfectly in keeping with the corpus of works it was created to house.

The Musée Picasso-Paris collection, the world’s largest collection of Picasso’s works, is unique in presenting not just an unrivalled array of techniques covering almost the entirety of the artist’s career, but above all because more than 80% of the works came directly from the artist’s studios.

This exhibition is organised chronologically and structured around these nine masterpieces, held by the artist’s daughter since she inherited them. Each room sets these pieces alongside groups of works from the museum’s collection as well as presenting a dialogue with a specially selected loan work. The aim here is to take an in-depth look at certain pivotal moments in Picasso’s oeuvre, exploring key aspects of his work such as his relation to tradition and to the portrait genre, and his use of writing as part of the creative process. Drawing on a rich array of paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Picasso, works from his own personal collection and a selection of outstanding loans, the show also offers new insights in the fields of non-Western, ancient and modern art.

Location: Level 0, Hôtel Salé