The Collection in context

Roberto Otero’s camera captured many of the works that Pablo Picasso kept in his Mougins home. We can identify nearly twenty which are part of the display of the Museo Picasso Málaga’s Collection Pablo Picasso: Structures of Invention. The Unity of a Life’s Work.

This study features all the photographs from the Roberto Otero archive that include works on view as part of the Museum’s Collection. Paintings and sculptures captured exactly as Picasso kept, looked after and managed them: stored in the so-called ‘secret room’, ready to be transported by truck or prepared to be documented by the photographers who accompanied Christian Zervos when he was compiling his catalogue.

The results of this work have been released in the video that is available here, which highlights the Picassos – some of which are located in the background space – found in Otero’s photographs. The video also includes a few reflections that the photographer compiled in his book Lejos de España: encuentros y conversaciones con Picasso (1975).

Pablo Picasso, with his back to the viewer, observes his Seated Woman (1958). Notre-Dame-de-Vie (Mougins), 1968–69. Photograph by Roberto Otero © Museo Picasso Málaga ; Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). La Californie. Interior with Red Armchair, Cannes, 17 June 1958. Oil on canvas. Photo: Rafael Lobato © Museo Picasso Málaga; The sculpture Bather playing (1958), prepared to be transported to the exhibition Hommage à Picasso at the Grand Palais and Petit Palais (1966). Photograph by Roberto Otero © Museo Picasso Málaga; Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The Tied Rooster, Mougins, 24–27 April 1962. Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Madrid © FABA Photo: Marc Domage; Christian Zervos. Notre-Dame-de-Vie, (1968–69). Photograph by Roberto Otero © Museo Picasso Málaga.