Picasso Painting at NLW on Saturday 8 May

Tue, 27 Apr 10 13:42:00

The reopening of the National Library of Wales on Saturdays will be a very special occasion as visitors will also be able to see one of Pablo Picasso’s first ever oil paintings, Still Life with Poron.

 

The National Library has been closed to the public on Saturdays for over a year. What better way then of welcoming visitors and readers back to the building in Aberystwyth than exhibiting a painting by one of the world’s most famous painters, the Catalan, Pablo Picasso?

 

The painting is on loan from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales who acquired it in November 2009 – the first oil painting by Pablo Picasso to enter a public collection in Wales. It will be exhibited at the Library’s Hengwrt gallery from 8 May – 30 August 2010.

 

Still Life with Poron (Nature Morte au Poron) is one of 3 still-lives painted by Picasso on 26 December 1948 in his studio on the Rue des Grands Augustins, Paris. It was purchased in assistance of the Derek Williams Trust (Centenary Fund) and The Art Fund. The ingredients for a meal - a lemon, a lobster and a ‘poron’ (from porrón - a traditional Spanish wine pitcher) – have been placed on a table, tipped towards the picture plane in typical cubist device.  

 

The Librarian, Andrew Green, is very proud that the Picasso painting will be shown at the National Library on the first day of Saturday opening.

 

‘The first ever showing of a Picasso painting in Aberystwyth is a welcome sign that the National Library is open to readers and the public on a Saturday. Collections will be available for readers from the Reading Rooms and the exhibitions, the Library’s shop, café and meeting rooms are also available to enjoy in a great location overlooking Aberystwyth.‘

Because of the limited service, readers will have to order material in advance and there will not be the usual full complement of food at the Library’s Pen Dinas Café. More information on Saturday opening is available on our website. 

 

As well as viewing Picasso’s painting, visitors can also enjoy other free exhibitions at the Library. They include, Say Cheese – Portraits of the Welsh, Step by Step – an introduction to family history and smaller exhibitions by the artist Denys Short and the Welsh writers, Brenda Chamberlain and Caradog Prichard.

 

 

Image: Pablo Picasso, Nature Morte au Poron, 1948

Copyright credit: ©Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2010

 

 

Further information:

Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902  post@llgc.org.uk

 

 

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