“How is it possible that this could have been done before I came onto the scene?”

This is how Picasso reacted on seeing the La Céramique Espagnole, du XIIIè siècle à nos jours exhibition in the French city of Cannes, or at least what the correspondent from La Vanguardia reported in his article of 13 April 1957.

The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death in 1973, and the Museu del Disseny is looking back at the history of the works Picasso donated to Museus d’Art de Barcelona that currently form part of its collections. This is the only donation of ceramic works that Picasso made to the city, showing the affection that the Malaga-born artist had for Barcelona, and also that he very much wanted his art to have a place in the municipal collections.

This is the starting point for this exhibition, which links to the common interest of two people: Lluís Maria Llubià, ceramics curator at Museus d’Art de Barcelona at the time, and Picasso himself. Thanks to their testimonies, we have been able to uncover the historical details, and 66 years on, are once again displaying the artist’s work alongside a representative collection of ceramic pieces at the museum.