Paloma Picasso visits Malaga to see sculpture of "Grandpa Pepe": José Ruiz Blasco

She came to Malaga on Wednesday, although this time she did it for "Abuelito Pepe" (Grandpa Pepe), as the family remembers the painter and drawing teacher José Ruiz Blasco (Malaga 1838 - Barcelona 1913).

"It's the first time I've met my grandfather, I arrived last night [Tuesday] and I'm going back to Paris in a little while, but I'm very happy to have come and taken part in this emotional moment," Picasso's youngest daughter told SUR on Wednesday.

She also had another compelling reason to come: the two-metre high sculpture was created by another member of the family, Xavier Vilató, the great-grandson of Ruiz Blasco.

The distant cousins (although very close) visited the monument that has been installed in Plaza El Ejido, where they admired the family scene of the legendary teacher and artist drawing while his son watches him. The sculpture also includes nine doves, like those José Ruiz painted in his oils and which his son later turned into a symbol of peace.

Xavier Vilató said he was delighted by the visit of the daughter of the creator of Guernica and head of Succession Picasso, the organisation responsible for safeguarding the legacy of the Malaga-born painter.

“The fact that Paloma, who is Grandpa Pepe’s granddaughter, is here with me to see the sculpture for the first time and to see it installed makes this a particularly heart-warming moment,” Vilató said, with his cousin looking on knowingly.

“All my life I’ve heard about the doves that Grandpa used to paint, so they simply had to be here as well,” added the current matriarch of the Picasso family, referring to a dove that settled on the sculpture during their visit.

Paloma said that the sculpture created by Vilató further strengthens Picasso’s ties with Malaga, a connection that the custodian of his legacy herself wished to affirm through her presence.

The sculptor added that the monument donated to the city originated precisely from the “reunion of the family with Malaga, which began many years ago”.

“Little by little, the idea that this was where our roots lay, and that something had to be done about it, led to this sculpture,” said the artist. He added that his father, Javier Vilató, would not say 'There's Spain' when he went to the French border with Pablo Picasso (beyond which the painter was unable to travel during Franco’s regime). “Instead, he would point south and say 'there's Malaga'."

This memory is also present in his sculpture which, nevertheless, places "Grandpa Pepe" at the centre. "He was the best drawing teacher of the 20th century, because he was the precursor of Pablo; he gave Picasso the mould so he could break it," said Vilató.

He pointed out that the artistic history of the family actually began with José Ruiz Blasco, emphasising that he not only influenced his revolutionary son, but that his artistic talent was also inherited by his granddaughter, Paloma Picasso, the jewellery designer, as well as by the descendants of his daughter, Lola Ruiz Picasso, including Javier, José and Xavier Vilató himself.

"There are quite a few artists who owe everything to their grandfather, so everything was born here, in Malaga, and that is why I had in mind for some time a tribute and a large sculpture in his honour in the city," said the sculptor, who is also delighted with the location of the figure, in El Ejido, very close to the faculty of fine arts.

"It's a wonderful place, because it's where today's art lives in Malaga. The first thing I thought was that, if I can make a sculpture that the kids can see and be inspired by, it will be a way of being in the midst of the people, of the people of Malaga," he added.