How Picasso revived Malaga’s art scene —from beyond the grave

It’s a little disconcerting talking to Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, because he really does look like his grandfather. He may be wearing a light-coloured suit and tie rather than a striped Breton T-shirt, but there’s no mistaking the resemblance. Sitting in the library at the Picasso museum he founded in Malaga with his mother, Christine, he is thoughtful, humorous and, for the grandson of arguably the greatest artist of the 20th century, admirably humble.
Ruiz-Picasso is based in Monaco, but he is in Malaga regularly for museum meetings and to work on exhibitions. Its latest three-year display brings together 144 Picasso artworks spanning eight decades. Some are from the permanent collection of 233 works gifted by Ruiz-Picasso and his mother; others are on loan from Faba, the foundation Ruiz-Picasso runs with his gallerist wife, Almine Rech.
Titled Pablo Picasso: Structures of Invention, The Unity of a Life’s Work, the new display highlights correspondences between works from the different periods and styles into which the artist’s output is traditionally fragmented. It’s an illuminating approach, and the family connection gives it a particular emotional charge. Previously unseen works are particularly intimate, such as a 1922 oil of Paulo (Ruiz-Picasso’s father) and two sketchbooks from Picasso’s Biarritz honeymoon with Olga Khokhlova (Ruiz-Picasso’s grandmother).
Ruiz-Picasso has warm memories of visiting his grandfather at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, the residence above Mougins where Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life with his second wife, Jacqueline, and her daughter Catherine — having vowed not to return to Spain until Franco was dead. “We would go to the bullfight together, play on the beach in Cannes, watch The Three Musketeers and wrestling and circus shows on the television,” he says. “Or I would sit quietly in the living room while he read the newspaper or received family and friends.” Picasso didn’t paint him, he says, but “there are drawings of my mother breastfeeding me”.
Ruiz-Picasso was 13 when his grandfather died in 1973, and it was as one of Picasso’s heirs, alongside his mother, that he first visited Malaga: the city in which the artist was born in 1881 and spent the first ten years of his life.
It was 1994 and his first impressions were of a “city abandoned”, he says. “Roofs were missing. Shutters were closed. People only came to the airport for the sea and sun. Those who lived here preferred to have a house with a garden in the suburbs rather than a flat without an elevator on a narrow street where they couldn’t park their car. In the fine arts museum, paintings were hanging at an angle. It was pretty sad. Yet here was a group of bright and interesting people with a vision to bring the city back to life.”
Christine was presenting her collection at the Episcopal Palace at the time — a full 40 years after Picasso had expressed his wish of donating some works to the city. Things evolved from there, Ruiz-Picasso says: “My mother wanted to give something back, and that something became something more.”
After extensive renovations, which included the excavation of significant Phoenician remains and a modern extension by the US architect Richard Gluckman, the Museo Picasso Malaga opened in 2003. Its location was an atmospheric Renaissance palace with Mudejar ceilings that had previously been the province’s fine arts museum. The renaissance of the city was under way.
Today, Malaga’s cultural offerings extend from evocative ancient sites such as the Moorish Gibralfaro castle and Alcazaba fortress, to a dynamic contemporary art scene. Ruiz-Picasso singles out El Balneario-Baños de Carmen, a beachfront bar and restaurant in an old bathing pavilion from 1918, “for spectacular views and an idea of how Malaga was before”. He suggests visiting the former fishing village of Pedregalejo, for sardines grilled on skewers over glowing embers, and the Parque de Malaga — beautiful botanical gardens planted at the end of the 19th century on land reclaimed from the sea.
To cap it all, there is Malaga’s unbeatable climate and location. He says: “Malaga is very close to Africa. It really has that feeling of the south.” Pablo Picasso: Structures of Invention runs to March 21, 2027, museopicassomalaga.org/en
Alongside its Picasso collection, the museum is showing Europa 1966-67, a new exhibition of work by the New York photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who spent six months in Malaga in 1966-67 with the Escalona flamenco family during a year-long road trip through Europe. The exhibition is curated by Miguel López-Remiro, the museum’s new artistic director, and accompanied by a series of flamenco performances. To December 15, museopicassomalaga.org/en
The artist’s birthplace museum places Picasso’s early childhood in Malaga at the heart of his development and vision. It includes artworks by Picasso and his father, José Ruiz Blasco, an art teacher and curator. museocasanatalpicasso.malaga.eu
This imposing neoclassical customs home is now home to the province’s fine arts collection and 15,000-archaeological artefacts from the city’s Phoenician, Roman and Moorish periods. museosdeandalucia.es/web/museodemalaga
The satellite of the Paris mothership is housed in a waterfront building by Daniel Buren that resembles a giant Rubik’s Cube. “Museums are evolving and it’s important to have synergies with major institutions to develop a statement of the role culture should play in contemporary society,” Ruiz-Picasso says. centrepompidou-malaga.eu
The Centre for Contemporary Art stages exhibitions by international artists and has collections of local art and works on loan from the collector Carmen Riera. cacmalaga.eu
A buzzy hub for contemporary art, with artist’s studios, exhibition spaces and musical performances, in a fabulous art deco building on the way to the airport. latermicamalaga.com
Another beautifully converted Renaissance palace, housing the collection of Carmen Cervera, the fifth wife of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, with a focus on Andalusian paintings from the 19th century. carmenthyssenmalaga.org
The rooftop tour offers staggering views of the unfinished south tower and the mountains that surround the city. malagacatedral.com
The passion project of Malaga native Antonio Banderas, launched in 2019 with the first production of Michael Bennett’s revolutionary musical A Chorus Line in the Spanish language. It is a dynamic and ambitious centre for the performing arts with a creative and progressive programme that includes shows by the in-house Soho Pop Symphony Orchestra. teatrodelsoho.com
A showcase for mostly Spanish cinema. The 28th edition runs from March 14 to 23, 2025. festivaldemalaga.com
Palacio Solecio, an 18th-century palace, meticulously restored by Antonio Obrador and expertly managed by Marugal. As well as 116 rooms and a gastronomic restaurant overseen by the Malagan chef Sergio Solana, it has a rooftop terrace for breakfast, cocktails and poolside lounging with views of the city skyline. It is a few steps away from Museo Picasso Malaga. palaciosolecio.com