Within the framework of the exhibition Les Clergues d’Arles which opened at the Musée Réattu on 5 July 2014, a major event - the exceptional loan of the Arles photographer’s collection of Picassos - got autumn off to a flying start. In this ensemble, the proverbial friendship between the painter and the photographer emerges as a mutual fascination and a lasting dialogue that wove throughout their careers.
The first public showing of the sixty or so works that make up the Clergue collection brings a new dimension to the theme of the exhibition. Comprising original drawings, drypoint etchings, aqua fortis, aquatints and linocuts, the collection forms a singular suite whose richness goes beyond graphic techniques; it was forged out of the virtuosity of a genius of 20th century art. It also recounts the personal story of a relationship that began with a photograph; the image that the young Arlesian dared to present to Picasso in 1953 as he was leaving the Arènes, and which the painter signed in approval, just as he would years later, when he signed Manitas de Plata’s guitar!
Organised around the permanent exhibition of Picasso’s famous 1971 donation to the Musée Réattu, it is a further reminder of the Réattu’s place as a backdrop for rich exchanges between impassioned painters, photographers and curators, which led it to become the first museum in France to give gallery space to both painting and photography.
