MALAGA.- The Picasso Museum Málaga is ending 2025 on solid ground. With 792,366 visitors over the year, the museum has confirmed what has become increasingly clear: its audience is stable, loyal, and deeply engaged. The figure, nearly identical to last year’s total, reflects not only sustained interest in Pablo Picasso’s work, but also confidence in the museum’s broader cultural vision.
Rather than chasing growth at all costs, the museum appears to have reached a moment of maturity—one defined by consistency, quality, and relevance in a highly competitive cultural and tourism landscape.
The year unfolded between two major Picasso-focused exhibitions with distinct perspectives. Picasso: The Royan Notebooks opened the calendar by bringing together, for the first time, the eight sketchbooks the artist produced during his stay in Royan after the outbreak of the Second World War. Drawings, gouaches, poems, and works by Dora Maar revealed a period of intense creativity under extraordinary circumstances. The year concluded with Picasso: Memory and Desire, an ambitious exhibition that places Picasso in dialogue with key figures of the 1920s and 1930s, from Giorgio de Chirico and Fernand Léger to Man Ray and René Magritte.
Contemporary voices also played a central role. William Kentridge’s monumental video installation More Sweetly Play the Dance—presented as a guest work—brought a powerful meditation on movement, history, and mortality to the museum’s galleries. Belgian painter Farah Atassi followed with Genius Loci, a visually rigorous exploration of space, form, and the invisible energies that shape visual perception. The museum also revisited Surrealism through a major retrospective of Óscar Domínguez, offering a deeper look at the Canary Islands artist whose work fused experimentation, imagination, and psychological intensity.
Importantly, the museum’s activity extended beyond its own walls. A new chapter of Reflections: Picasso x Barceló opened at the Museum of Almería in December, continuing the institution’s commitment to sharing its curatorial projects across Andalusia. The exhibition will travel next to Cádiz in 2026, reinforcing the museum’s role as a cultural connector rather than a closed destination.
Education and public programming remained a cornerstone of the museum’s mission. Nearly 30,000 people participated in lectures, seminars, courses, film screenings, and concerts throughout the year—clear evidence that the institution is not only a place to view art, but also a space for learning, discussion, and collective experience.
According to artistic director Miguel López-Remiro, approaching 800,000 visitors for the second year in a row, combined with strong engagement in educational activities, confirms the long-term strength of the museum’s project. He emphasizes the museum’s commitment to inclusivity and dialogue, positioning it as a shared space for knowledge that connects with universities, schools, and diverse social contexts. The recent renewal of the collaboration agreement with the University of Málaga further solidifies this approach.
As the museum looks ahead, continuity remains a guiding principle. The permanent exhibition Pablo Picasso: Structures of Invention. The Unity of a Work, inaugurated in 2024, has been extended until 2028 due to sustained public interest. Meanwhile, the 2026 exhibition program promises a wide-ranging journey through modern and contemporary art, with figures such as Edvard Munch, Elena Asins, Joana Vasconcelos, and Miquel Barceló joining Picasso at the center of the narrative.
In a year marked by cultural abundance and fierce competition, the Picasso Museum Málaga has chosen steadiness over spectacle—and the results suggest that audiences are responding. The museum closes 2025 not with grand gestures, but with quiet confidence, reaffirming its place as one of Spain’s most important cultural institutions.
