Fundació Palau Caldes d'Estrac

Inaugurated in May 2003, the Palau Foundation's vocation is to preserve, exhibit and disseminate the artistic and documentary collection of Josep Palau i Fabre.

Josep Palau i Fabre, (Barcelona, 1917 – 2008), is considered one of the great personalities of Catalan literature of our times. Thanks to his relationship with personalities such as Picasso, Artaud, Octavio Paz, Cocteau, Lorca, Alberti, etc. He connected Catalan culture with the most important artistic currents of the 20th century.

Poet, playwright, short story writer and essayist, he has been a student of art, and especially of the work of Pablo Picasso. He dedicated more than twenty books (some translated into a dozen languages) to the analysis and commentary of the painter's work, culminating this work with four volumes of a monumental biography, with hundreds of illustrations, which has been translated into many languages.

The Palau Foundation shows the most outstanding part of its art collection, while illustrating the life and intellectual career of Josep Palau i Fabre. It also brings together an important documentary and bibliographic collection on Picasso, contemporary art and Catalan and French literature, open to public consultation. It also organizes temporary exhibitions, educational activities and other cultural events around art and poetry, such as the Poesía y + festival with an offer of shows around poetry (music, theatre, performances...). The Foundation also publishes publications that are not only limited to the edition of catalogs but also reissues of the work of Palau i Fabre.

The permanent collection of the Palau Foundation is exhibited in two rooms: “A painter father and a poet son” and “Dear Picasso”.

Completely renovated in 2020, “ A painter father and a poet son ” includes the collection of Josep Palau Oller, the father of Josep Palau i Fabre, who was a painter, art collector, furniture designer and decorator.
Palau i Fabre completed the collection with works by artists such as Joaquim Torres-García, thus giving continuity to his father's work. This room incorporates the testimony of Palau i Fabre's collaboration with artists such as Albert Ràfols Casamada or his relationship with painters such as Antoni Tàpies and Joan Ponç, and with the more current Miquel Barceló and Perejaume.

Josep Palau i Fabre maintained a relationship of admiration and, in the last years of the artist's life, friendship with Picasso. The “Dear Picasso” room collects the works of Picasso that Palau i Fabre gathered with the idea of exhibiting them in its Foundation, as a tribute to the most important artist of the 20th century and as a testimony of their friendship.

This space permanently exhibits a very varied set of Picasso works from very diverse periods and styles, from the painter's beginnings at the Lonja school in Barcelona to the last years of his life.

Highlights include academic studies, the collection of graphic works and a small theater that Picasso made for his daughter Maya. Also shown are some books dedicated by Picasso that contain drawings.

Educational proposals

From the Palau Foundation we also offer an activity that consists of a visit to the Foundation and a route through the town of Caldes de Estrac led by the poets Josep Palau i Fabre, Jacint Verdaguer, Joan Maragall and Apel·les Mestres, poets who They made stays in the municipality. We also have tourist packages that combine menus in restaurants, thermal baths and visits to the Fundació. We adapt to all types of audiences when visiting both the collection and the itineraries around the town.

Schedules

Check schedules on the Fundació Palau website www.fundaciopalau.cat/