Haggin Museum is pleased to present Picasso’s La Tauromaquia: Works from the Bank of America Collection. This collection of aquatint etchings featuring the allure of bullfighting in Spain will be on view to the public from May 18, 2017 through December 2017.
Born in Málaga, Spain, Pablo Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. He was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer. For nearly eighty of his 91 years, Picasso devoted himself to an artistic production that contributed significantly to and paralleled the entire development of modern art.
La Tauromaquia is a series of 26 aquatint etchings illustrating what was once one of the most important themes of Spanish culture, the art of the bullfight. Picasso completed this body of work in 1957 as an homage to the famous eighteenth-century matador José Delgado, known colloquially as “Pepe Illo.” Picasso’s fascination with the bullfight started when he was a young boy in Málaga. His childhood notebooks from school are filled with sketches of matadors, bullrings and picadors. Picasso’s first painting, created in 1889, was of a matador.
The Art in Our Communities Program, established in 2008, has loaned more than 120 exhibitions to museums around the world. As the leading supporter of the arts and culture in the United States, Bank of America created this program to offer museums the opportunity to present shows curated from the company’s extensive collection of paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and art objects. Leveraging their significant corporate art collection, Bank of America loans curated collections and complete exhibitions to museums free of charge so the public can experience firsthand important works of art while at the same time generate vital revenue for these institutions. According to Bank of America California president, and Stockton native, Janet Lamkin, “We believe the arts matter, and can be used to help stimulate local economic and cultural activity. So it made perfect sense to share this important collection with the Haggin Museum, an important regional institution we’ve worked with on past exhibits.” The Haggin Museum is honored to partner with Bank of America to present some of these inspiring exhibitions.