Christine Ruiz-Picasso, daughter-in-law of the Malaga artist and great architect, along with her son Bernard, of the creation of the Picasso Museum in Malaga, has died at the age of 97 in her home in Provence (France), according to sources from the art gallery.
In 1992, Christine Ruiz-Picasso (France, 1928), visited Málaga to go to the exhibition Classic Picasso in the Episcopal Palace. The trip reminded her of the other one she had made in 1954 with her husband, Paul Ruiz-Picasso. And he decided that it was time to fulfill his father-in-law’s wish, Pablo Picassoto have a space in your hometown. Thanks to his tenacity, genius and intelligence, together with the idea that art should overcome any social or ideological barrier, he managed to overcome all obstacles. Already in 2003 it opened the Picasso Málaga Museum with a collection based on your donations and the address of Carmen Gimenez.
Christine Picasso was the widow of Paul Ruiz-Picasso, son of Pablo Picasso and Olga Khokhlova. She was always linked to the world of art—she trained as a ceramist—and even more so when she became the daughter-in-law of the genius from Malaga, with whom she even worked on ceramic pieces. In 1953, Picasso received a letter from the then delegate of Fine Arts in Malaga, the academic and researcher Juan Tembourywhere he asked for works for a new museum. “Forgive me, brilliant teacher, for my audacity in making this request,” said the text, which made the artist think, who wanted to send two trucks full of his work to Malaga, but first he sent his son along with his then girlfriend Christine to get to know Temboury and the situation in which the city found itself.
The political context was key and prevented the project from being carried out, but when Christine returned to the city in the 90s she understood that it was time. “That initial contact was the first stone in the way, but then she took the reins to set up the museum. We will be eternally grateful to her,” he emphasizes. Mari Paz Tembourydaughter of the person who wrote that decisive letter.
The challenge was not easy. Politicians with different signs of agreement had to be brought together, have the collaboration of the French Ministry of Culture or find a headquarters worthy of the initiative. The art historian Eugenio Carmona remembers the walks with her through the city in search of the ideal place. “I felt the vibrations of each space,” he highlights, until they found the Buenavista Palace16th century building. The previous meetings with the Malaga authorities had not been easy because no one in the city believed that what Christine proposed could become a reality. “It was not in the city’s strategic plans, it was a missing piece,” José Lebrero recalled to this newspaper a few years ago.
There were many doubts, yes, among the political class. Eugenio Carmona himself traveled to Nimes to visit her in 1996 to dispel them. “She never had them, she only had the ambition to fulfill Picasso’s legacy and it bothered her that people thought she wanted something in return, when that was never the case,” highlights the specialist, who maintains that the donation of works that she made with her son Bernard Ruiz-Picasso —233 pieces—was key for everything to move forward. “I don’t want to be treated as if I were Saint Cristina, I have limited myself to fulfilling Pablo’s wish that his works be shown for the first time in Malaga one day, but that is where my role ends: now it is the public that must rediscover Picasso’s art,” he said in 1994 when the idea took its first steps.
The historian remembers a “fascinating woman, with an impressive character and incredible strength despite the suffering of her private life.” Above all, she explains, following the death of her husband in 1975, two years after her father, due to alcohol. At that time he had to take charge of the choice of the Picasso inheritance that corresponded to Paul’s two children, Bernard and Marina. “We have been very favored in life, so we believe that we also have to give. That is why the project started, which belongs to my mother, me and my children,” Bernard told EL PÁIS on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Picasso Málaga Museum in 2023..
That year, tribute was paid to her by naming the museum’s auditorium after Christine Ruiz-Picasso. She was unable to attend for health reasons; her son expressed that his mother was present “with her heart.” Years before, in 2008, he received the Golden Shield from the Association of Plastic Artists of Malaga. And in 2003 she was distinguished as Favorite Daughter of Andalusia in recognition of her cultural work and her contribution to the artistic heritage of the region. “Her legacy as a patron, cultural promoter and defender of Picasso’s heritage has contributed significantly to the cultural life of Malaga, Spain and the knowledge of modern art,” the Malaga museum reported in a statement. “He was the architect of the cultural impulse of the city,” recognized the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torreon their social networks. “His determination for the collection of the universal genius to return to his hometown is indelible,” added the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla.
On each visit to Malaga, Christine Picasso displayed an extensive culture, a great knowledge of the art world and, also, an enormous repertoire of anecdotes. “He had many things from the artist’s daily lifewas a living memory of Picasso. But he never let us take notes or record anything. She liked to be reserved,” highlights Eugenio Carmona. “She had very pleasant memories of her father-in-law and she loved to talk, so she was always telling stories,” adds Mari Paz Temboury, who points out that Christine’s entourage knew about her delicate health for a long time and it has been “very hard to know that she is already gone.”