Picasso and the Joy of Life. Fundación Bancaja. Valencia.
30 November 2018 - 31 March 2019.

The exhibition Picasso: The joy of living, curated by Javier Molins, brings together a selection of more than 170 works between oils, engravings, drawings, lithographs, prints and ceramics that reflect the vital attitude that Picasso maintained throughout his life, characterised by what the French call the "joie de vivre", and that happened to become a philosophy of life that shaped in all his work. The selection of works that make up the exhibition is made up of funds from the Bancaja Foundation Collection along with other pieces ceded by the Reina Sofia National Art Museum, the Picasso Museum in Málaga, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Carmen Thyssen Collection, the Picasso Foundation Natal House Museum,

The exhibition, curated by Javier Molins, an art critic and doctor in Fine Arts, explores several themes of Picasso around the Joy of Life. In this way, one can contemplate the sensuality of a theme such as that of the painter and the model, who also worked in several creative stages; the universe of the circus and the clowns; the world of bullfights and of the minotaur; the color of music and dance that shaped the numerous ballets for which he designed the costumes; the primitive art, made up of African masks that it collected and that served as inspiration for many of its works; the Mediterranean culture, which moved to endless ceramics throughout its entire life; his stays on the Cote d'Azur and especially in La Californie, where he created some of his best-known works, such as the different versions he made of Las Meninas de Velazquez; or the admiration for the great masters of the painting that so many times served him as a source of inspiration for his own work.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalog was published with the reproduction of the works present in the exhibition and the critical text of the curator, Javier Molins.