The Cultural Work of FUNIBER and the Universidad Europea del Atlantico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO) inaugurated on 13 May the exhibition “La Celestina”, by Pablo Picasso, at the Spanish Cultural Centre in Panama City, with the support of the Spanish Embassy in Panama.
The exhibition was inaugurated by H.E. Guzmán Palacios Fernández, Spanish Ambassador to Panama, Mr Gregorio Urriola Candanedo, Director of the Panamanian headquarters of the Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana (Ibero-American University Foundation, FUNIBER), and Ms Elena González, Director of the Spanish Cultural Centre.
The event was also attended by members of the diplomatic corps, cultural managers, academics and art lovers. Ambassador Palacios highlighted the intense collaboration between FUNIBER and the Spanish Embassy in Panama with the aim of building bridges through the arts, in addition to its proverbial task of improving education and encouraging Panamanian citizens to study in Spain.
The director of the Spanish Cultural Centre also expressed her gratitude for this new exhibition that FUNIBER is making available to Panamanians through this cultural window in a series that spans a wide time frame. For his part, Professor Urriola Candanedo gave a brief talk on the creative context of the engravings on display and their value as a synthesis of the last creative phases of a Picasso who was almost 90 years old.
In 1971, Picasso extracted 66 engravings from the 347 series, created in 1968, to include them in the edition of the book La Célestine by Spanish writer Fernando de Rojas, which the Crommelynck Atelier was preparing.
These engravings from La Celestina reveal two contrasting approaches: on the one hand, the dynamic ones, where the characters run, flee or burst in, even on horseback, before women who react to the invasive action, fleeing or standing firm, victims or accomplices of their own abduction. On the other hand, the static ones, in which one or more suitors enjoy contemplating the semi-naked body of the lady, displayed to potential clients by the procuress; or the simple frontal exposure of the lady in varying degrees of nudity, alone or being courted by the usual onlookers.
The exhibition will be open until 27 June. During this period, there will be guided tours, as well as a series of talks by the director of FUNIBER in Panama, organised for trade associations and interested groups.