Paloma Picasso inaugurates in Malaga the sculpture by Xavier Vilató to "Grandpa Pepe": José Ruiz Blasco

Paco Griñán

Málaga

The scheduled date for the inauguration of the monument is this Thursday. However, Paloma Picasso faced a dilemma: she did not want to miss it, but her previous commitments made it difficult. Therefore, she moved up her appointment and, in a lightning trip, visited her father's city again yesterday, this time for "grandpa Pepe," as the family remembers Picasso's father, the painter and drawing teacher José Ruiz Blasco (Málaga, 1838-Barcelona, 1913). "It's the first time I meet my grandfather, I arrived last night - on Tuesday - and I'm returning to Paris in a while, but I'm thrilled to have come and to participate in this exciting moment," Paloma, Picasso's youngest daughter, confessed yesterday to SUR. She had another compelling reason to come: the large sculpture, over two meters tall, was made by another family member, Xavier Vilató, great-grandson of Ruiz Blasco.

Both, distant cousins yet very close, visited the monument installed in El Ejido square, where they admired the family scene of the legendary teacher and artist drawing, while his son watches. A boy the same age as Pablito Picasso when he lived in Málaga. And with several doves, like those José Ruiz painted in his oils and which his son turned into a symbol of peace. "The sculpture shows 9 doves, but today it had ten," Xavier Vilató confessed, delighted with the visit of the daughter of the 'Guernica' author and head of Succession Picasso, who oversees the Malaga painter's legacy.

"All my life I've heard about the doves that grandpa painted, so they had to be here too"

Paloma Picasso

Administrator of Succession Picasso

"The fact that Paloma, who is the granddaughter of grandpa Pepe, is here with me to see the sculpture for the first time and see it installed, makes this moment truly endearing," Vilató assured, under the complicit gaze of his cousin. "All my life I've heard about the doves that grandpa painted, so they had to be here too," replied the current matriarch of the Picasso clan, following the death two years ago of her brother Claude - both children of the Malaga native and Francois Gilot -, and previously of her half-siblings, Paulo and Maya.

"There is Málaga"

Paloma believes that the sculpture made by Vilató further tightens Picasso's ties with Málaga, a connection that she herself, as head of his legacy, wanted to seal with her presence. The sculptor added that the monument donated to the city originated from the "reunion of the family with Málaga that began a long time ago." "Gradually, the idea that here were our roots and that something had to be done led to this sculpture," the artist considered, recalling what his father, Javier Vilató, told him when they reached the French border with Pablo Picasso, from where the painter could not pass during Franco's time: "He didn't say: 'There is Spain,' but rather pointed south and stated: 'There is Málaga'."

José Ruiz Blasco "was the best drawing teacher of the twentieth century, because he was the precursor of Pablo, to whom he gave the mold so that Picasso could break it"

Xavier Vilató

Artist and great-nephew of Picasso

This memory is also present in his sculpture which, however, centers on "grandpa Pepe." "He was the best drawing teacher of the twentieth century, because he was the precursor of Pablo, to whom he gave the mold so that Picasso could break it," Xavier Vilató claimed, highlighting that the artistic history of the family actually started with José Ruiz Blasco, who not only influenced his revolutionary son but also passed the artistic gene to his granddaughter Paloma Picasso - a jewelry designer - and the descendants of his daughter, Lola Ruiz Picasso, like Javier, José, or Xavier Vilató himself. "There are quite a few artists who owe everything to grandpa, so everything started here, in Málaga, and that's why I had in mind for a long time a tribute and a large sculpture in his honor in the city," the author of the monument maintained, also delighted with the location of the figure, very close to the Faculty of Fine Arts in El Ejido.

"It's a wonderful place, because it's where the art of today lives in Málaga with all the young people who are learning, so the first thing I thought is that if I can make a sculpture that the kids can see and be inspired by, it will be a way to be among the people, among the Malagueños," Xavier Vilató considered, who this Thursday returns to this space to officially inaugurate the monument, alongside the mayor, Francisco de la Torre. Although this time there will only be nine doves. "Well, I've already seen some flying over the sculpture and surely more than one will make it their own," the artist concluded.

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