The first museum created by the Community of Madrid celebrates these days its 25th anniversary. This is the Museo Picasso - Eugenio Arias Collection, located in the town of Buitrago del Lozoya Madrid, Arias birthplace.
From 1948 Picasso went to Eugenio’s barber shop located in Vallauris [southern France], there was where the barber and Picasso, Communists, exiles, great lovers of Spain and bullfighting fans, became close friends.
Resulting of this friendship, Picasso gave Eugenio lots of works that, years later, he donated to Buitrago del Lozoya and was the Picasso Museum’s origin.
When it is celebrated this museum’s 25 years, the museum hosts a program of commemoration activities organized by the Community of Madrid and the City of Buitrago del Lozoya.
The exhibition "Picasso's barber” whih will continue until June the 23rd at the Multipurpose Building of the consistory. The exhibition, which consists of 140 elements that Picasso gave to his friend Eugenio Arias, is also a statement of friendship, camaraderie, art, nostalgia and life.
The museum, dedicated to art and friendship, is a clear example of the tunes and the relations they established between them, reflecting hobbies, passions and shared concerns: exile, the passion for bulls, leftist militancy, melancholy for the Spanish culture and the respect and affection for the profession of barber.
Among the activities planned, we can advance a tribute concert to Picasso by Enrique Morente, the publication of the story "The Barber of Picasso" and a temporary exhibition in the Plaza de las Ventas, showing bullfighting motifs funds from the collection of the Picasso Museum - Eugenio Arias Collection.
The collection
The Picasso-Arias Collection Museum, the result of the deep friendship established in French exile between Pablo Picasso and a Spanish barber called Eugenio Arias. The museum, which opened in 1985, houses the 71 gifts that the painter made to Arias, which include drawings, ceramics, a pyro-engraving, dedicated posters and books.
Also, the Community of Madrid continues to expand the museum’s funds, as it is the case of the two mythological subject prints, dated 1966, which were acquired in 2005 through the application of the 1% Cultural funds.
Picasso’s Barber
The Picasso Museum - Eugenio Arias Collection, exhibits an unusual collection of works given by the artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso to his barber, Eugenio Arias, during a long period of friendship that lasted 26 years.
Eugenio Arias was born in Buitrago del Lozoya in 1909. At the end of Spanish Civil War, he went into exile to France and settled his barber's shop in Vallauris in 1946, where he met Picasso, who at that time was living in Vallauris in his villa "La Galoise".
Eugenio Arias transerred his collection to the extinguished Diputación de Madrid in 1982. Set up in Buitrago del Lozoya Town Hall, it was the first Museum created and opened by the Regional Government of Madrid on March 15 th, 1985.
Eugenio Arias died on 28 April 2008, at 98 years old, a week before he was awarded with the Silver Medal of the Community of Madrid, picked up by his son, Pedro Arias. Moreover, the regional government and the Municipality of Buitrago del Lozoya gave him an emotional tribute in his hometown in which he was named "Favorite Son of Buitrago del Lozoya".
More information:
Place: Museo Picasso Colección Arias.
Plaza de Picasso 1. Buitrago del Lozoya
Phone: 91 868 00 56
Price: free entry
Hours: Tuesday to Friday: 11 am to 1:45 pm and 4 pm to 6 pm. (except Wednesday afternoon)
Saturday: 10 am to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 7 pm.
Sundays and bank holidays: from 10 am to 2 pm.
Mondays: closed