Picasso is still more committed to Francoism and admits to "always struggling for my painting as a true revolutionary".
Franco led Spain with an iron fist for nearly forty years, up until 1975. Picasso was never to return to his native country. The man who started off spending time in France for artistic and personal reasons ended up becoming an exile like his fellow Spaniards. In the reports from the 1950s held at the Paris Préfecture de police, he is described as a “Spanish refugee.” A memorandum from the General Information Department dated December 31, 1954 reports that “he did not always have the attitude towards France that every foreigner must exhibit in a host country.”[1]
Thus, the artist joined the community of “Spanish refugees” after the Republicans lost the civil war, probably realizing that he would never be able to return home. He was suddenly faced with the same situation as Olga during the Russian Revolution. But his circumstances were nothing like those of the many families that had been forced to leave their villages, much though he may have already experienced the tragedy of exile through his wife. Aware of his privileged situation, he made it widely available to those in need, both artists and others. He became a point of reference for many associations, as an artist and as the chairman Spanish Republican Aid Committee, where his name was enormously helpful for fundraising efforts. He participated in the events organized against the Franco regime and helped the community as much as he could. Professor Joseph Parello, a biochemistry researcher at the CNRS, discovered a letter from Irene Joliot-Curie, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, indicating that Warsaw Hospital (renamed Joseph Ducuing Hospital in 1971) received funds raised by the Joint Anti-Fascist Committee – founded in 1942 by Dr. Edward K. Barsky – and its distinguished representative, Professor Walter B. Cannon. The American anti-fascists from the JAFC, supported by Albert Einstein, Orson Welles, and Yehudi Menuhin, among others, responded to the appeal for generosity launched by the Spanish Refugee Appeal, whose honorary president was none other than Picasso.[2] Many leagues, associations, and alliances in the United States mobilized to help the refugees. And the artist, himself a benefactor, carefully followed the progress of donations to the hospital, nursing homes, and summer camps for children, as shown in the notebooks kept in his archives at the Musée national Picasso-Paris.
The Hôpital Varsovie was a model of its kind, cited as an example and visited by many personalities, partly thanks to the charisma of its director, Joseph Ducuing, who gave it his name. In 1948, the first editorial of the Anales del Hospital Varsovia clearly stated the aim of the hospital complex: “to treat all Spanish emigration in its pain and suffering, to restore and preserve its moral health, and to participate in the great undertaking that Spanish emigration set itself at the end of the war: to study the pathology of painful, long, massive emigration; [...] to be the home and the health center for all Spanish Republicans without discrimination as to their political orientation or religious beliefs –in other words, to be the main health facility for a body of political migrants that is strong and aware of its mission.”[3] After a visit in June 1950, Paul Eluard wrote about the hospital in the guest book kept by Les amis de la médecine sociale in Toulouse: “The Spanish people have not lost their health nor their strength. They will again find happiness within their borders. Here, once again, I have admired the clarity of our shared hopes.”
Was Picasso truly an exiled artist? Exile – that cornerstone of personal identity in the struggle against the world's economic or political conflicts.
When he joined the Communist Party in 1944, he stated to L’Humanité: “Yes, I’m aware of always having fought for my painting as a true revolutionary. But now I understand that it is not enough. These years of terrible oppression have proven to me that I didn’t simply have to fight with my art, but with every part of myself. And then, I turned to the Communist Party without the slightest hesitation, because, deep down, I had always belonged to it. Aragon, Eluard, Cassou, Fougeron – all my friends know that well. How could I have had any doubts? Fear of commitment, maybe? But never before had I felt so free; on the contrary, I feel more complete! Besides, I was so anxious to find a new homeland… I have always been an exile, and now I am no longer one. While I wait for Spain to be my home again, the French Communist Party has opened its arms to me. [...] I am back among my brothers again. ”[4]
[1] Archives of the Préfecture de police, file GA 230_204648, op. cit.
[2] https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2008/11/23/496984-quand-picasso-aidait-l-hopital-des-guerilleros-espagnols.html
[3] Alvar Martinez Vidal (coord.), L’Hôpital Varsovie. Exil, médecine et résistance (1944-1950), éditions Loubatières « libre parcours » collection, p. 69.
[4] Pablo Picasso, « Pourquoi j’ai adhéré au parti communiste » (excerpt), L’Humanité, October 29-30, 1944, pages 1-2.
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Summary