Picasso Museum

Picasso Museum

Not many artists have more than one museum devoted to their artwork; an exception is Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973). Spain has two museums, one in Malaga, where Picasso was born and one in Barcelona where he moved to with his family in 1895. France also has two Picasso museums: Paris and Antibes, since he lived much of his life here dying in Mougins, France. And the museum island of Berlin has an unusual private museum with displays of "Picasso and his contemporaries" collected by art and antiques dealer Heinz Berggruen.

Picasso spent nearly 80 of his 91 years with his artistic production that spanned paintings, sculptors, prints, ceramics, and stage design, believing that his work kept him alive. Together with Georges Braque, he created Cubism. His work contributed significantly to modern art in the 20th century.

In 1917 Picasso met Olga Kokhlova and travelled with Diaguiley's ballet company to Rome. Afterwards he travelled to Barcelona to introduce her to his family and spent a longer period in the city. His works bear witness to this stay, as his art moves from Cubism to reencounter with classicism, inspired by his trip to Italy. In 1970 Picasso donated his early work to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona making it a museum rich on works from his formative periods and from his period with Olga in Barcelona. Guernica - one of his most important works, is in Madrid's Reina Sofia Art Centre.

The museum is in the heart of the old city and opened in 1963. Since its recent expansions that were completed in 2003 it now sprawls over a row of five Gothic palaces, once the homes of Barcelona's aristocrats. The curators have arranged the paintings in chronological order from Picasso's early days to his final works. Arranging the paintings in this fashion makes it easy to access and gives you an insight into his artistic development. The Picasso Museum is by the way the most visited art gallery in Barcelona and caters to over 1,000,000 visitors per year. Be aware that it's packed in the summer.

The black-white website of the Picasso Museum opens with a photo of Picasso looking out at us with those well-known piercing eyes. The website is subdued and I'm curious to go exploring.

User-friendliness
The site isn't very big, so there is no chance of getting lost. There are four menu topics: the museum, collection, exhibition and services, which are basic and focused choices. The website is trilingual: Spanish, Catalan and English. There is no print function. The search engine wasn't working, I tried searching for Cubism, Barcelona and Picasso and there were no hits. All in all a very basic website, nonetheless I couldn't find the opening hours or admission fees. I have elsewhere read that the admission is 4,80 euro and the first Sunday of the month is free.

Navigation
The navigation is straightforward and logical.

Updating
I am afraid that with one million visitors yearly there is not excuse for not updating the site. The last catalogue publication listed is from 2004! Even worse is that "Future exhibitions" lists only one "Picasso and the circus". This exhibition ended February 18, 2007!

Content
The collections of the museum are described in detail, although perhaps a bit too academic. The information and descriptions may be incomprehensible to outsiders, although the Picasso chronology certainly is helpful for those that need a quick brush-up on Picasso's artistic developments.

Aesthetics
The colour scheme is a subdued black-white with some dark blue lettering. This can be a good choice, if one wants to focus on Picasso's artwork. There are quite a few thumbnail pictures, but otherwise this is a website without graphic design and photos, and (too) much text.

On a website certain formats should be chosen and maintained, for instance lettering. Some pages use Verdana, others Times New Roman. This gives a messy impression.

Creativity 
Not relevant. 

A museum of this calibre should focus more on the website. A museum website is where many visitors initially meet the museum. Of course it doesn't have to be as elaborate and comprehensive as the Van Gogh museum, but there is much inspiration for the Picasso Museum to be found with their Van Gogh Museum colleagues.

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Related Information
Official website of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Picasso Museum