Fundació Palau Caldes d'Estrac

Inaugurated in May 2003, the Palau Foundation aims 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 figures of Catalan literature of our time. 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 movements of the 20th century.

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

The Palau Foundation displays the most important part of its art collection, while illustrating the life and intellectual career of Josep Palau i Fabre. It also houses an important documentary and bibliographic collection on Picasso, contemporary art and Catalan and French literature, open to the public. It also organises temporary exhibitions, educational activities and other cultural events around art and poetry, such as the Poesía y + festival with a range of shows around poetry (music, theatre, performances, etc.). The Foundation also publishes publications that are not limited to the publication of catalogues but also reissues of Palau i Fabre's work.

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” brings together 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 continuing 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 recent Miquel Barceló and Perejaume.

Josep Palau i Fabre and Picasso had a relationship of admiration and, in the last years of the artist's life, of friendship. The “Dear Picasso” room contains the works of Picasso that Palau i Fabre collected with the idea of exhibiting them in his 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 collection of Picasso's 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.

The academic studies, the collection of graphic works and a small theatre that Picasso made for his daughter Maya are particularly noteworthy. Also on display are some books dedicated by Picasso that contain drawings.

Educational proposals

The Palau Foundation also offers 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 spent time in the municipality. We also have tourist packages that combine menus in restaurants, thermal baths and visits to the Foundation. We adapt to all types of public when it comes to visits to both the collection and the itineraries through the town.

Schedules

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