The Fundación Picasso, also known as the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation,[1] is a foundation based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain with the objective of promoting and promulgating the work of the artist Pablo Picasso. They are headquartered in the home on the Plaza de la Merced that was his birthplace, now the Museo Casa Natal ("Birthplace Museum"), one of the world's many Picasso museums.[2]
The Fundación Picasso is distinct from the former Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso ("Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation") and Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga ("Malaga Picasso Museum Foundation"), both associated with the much larger Museo Picasso Málaga. Those two foundations merged in December 2009 to form the "Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legado Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso" ("Museo Picasso Málaga Foundation. The Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz Picasso Legacy").[3][4][5][6]
The foundation was created by the city government of Málaga in 1988. Headquartered since its founding in the Casa Natal—declared a Historical-Artistic Monument of National Interest—it later obtained an additional exhibition space at Number 13 of the same plaza in 2005.[2]
The facility includes a Picasso documentation center; art collections; a department of cultural promotion, which organizes expositions and conferences; and the Museo Casa Natal. In 2009 the Andalusian Autonomous Government agreed to give the foundation the Palacio de Buenavista (seat of the Museo Picasso Málaga), as a result of the merger of the Fundación Picasso and the Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso.[3] The new merged foundation is officially the "Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legado Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso" ("Museo Picasso Málaga Foundation. The Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz Picasso Legacy").[5][6]
^See a brief remark on these two foundations in Gonzalo Zanza/Pedro Corral, Málaga: principio y fin del siglo de Picasso, ABC (Madrid) 1999-11-06. Article begins on p. 31, link is to p. 33, which has the relevant passage.
Places in Malaga associated with Picasso gives a good description of the house where Picasso was born and with other locations in Málaga that played a role in his childhood.