The Obra Cultural de UNEATLANTICO in collaboration with the Universidade Internacional do Cuanza (UNIC), the Spanish Embassy in Angola, the government of Bié, the transport company AJS and with the sponsorship of ENSA Seguros de Angola, inaugurated on Saturday 23rd November the exhibition of lithographs and engravings by Pablo Picasso «The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and The Double Flute» , at the Walter Cambodja Polytechnic Institute of Arts in the city of Cuíto (Angola).
At the inauguration, the guests were welcomed by the vice-governor of the Technical and Infrastructure Sector, Dr. Edgar Marcelino dos Santos Hilario, representing the governor of Bié, Dr. Celeste Elavoco David Afonso, followed by a word of thanks from Dr. Amália Barbosa, executive director of ENSA .
Finally, on behalf of FUNIBER, the rector of the Universidade Internacional do Cuanza (UNIC), Dr. Carlos Martínez, made a presentation on the life of the painter and the collections that will be exhibited, property of FUNIBER. The inauguration of the exhibition, with the corresponding ribbon cutting, was carried out by the vice-governor of the technical and infrastructures sector of the province of Bié, Dr. Edgar Marcelino dos Santos Hilario.
Before entering the room where the works were displayed, the guests were asked to draw some lines on a canvas provided by the organisation to stimulate creativity in the creation of a joint work by all the guests. The exhibition was curated by Dr. María Rodríguez, vice-rector of UNIC. The inauguration was attended by provincial and municipal government bodies, businessmen and the academic community (professors and students from the province’s universities), and was also covered by the Angolan Public Television (TPA), the province’s radio channels, Agencia Angola Press (ANGOP) and Jornal de Angola.
One of the collections, ‘The Burial of the Count of Orgaz’ emerged as a visual part of an experiment in surrealist automatic writing by Picasso on a Spanish manuscript from 1957 and 1958, and a proposal by the poet Rafael Alberti through a poetic text in which he praised Picasso’s creativity. In the collection ‘The Double Flute’, Picasso cultivates the academic nude, without showing male or female sexual organs, with remarkable realism, but also recreating characters from Greco-Roman mythology such as the faun, the minotaur and the god Bacchus.
With the free exhibition of these collections, which will take place from 23 November to 16 December at the Walter Cambodja Polytechnic Institute of Art in the city of Cuito, the Spanish Embassy, for the first time in Africa, offers Angolans the possibility of enjoying these collections of such a universal artist. During the exhibition there will be guided tours by art teachers from the Instituto Politécnico de Arte Walter Cambodja.
The exhibition continues its tour of the African country, having previously been exhibited in Luanda and Lubango, Benguela and Huambo. The works will be exhibited again in Luanda, where they will be closed. With the inauguration of these collections, the Spanish Embassy offers, for the first time in Africa, the possibility for Angolans to enjoy these collections belonging to such a universal artist.