#CENTRE PICASSO

[ernestdescalsartwok]

CENTRE PICASSO-HORTA DE SANT JOAN-ARTE-PINTURA-ENCUENTRO-GENIO-FOTOS-ARTISTA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS por Ernest Descals Por Flickr: CENTRE PICASSO-HORTA DE SANT JOAN-ARTE-PINTURA-ENCUENTRO-GENIO-FOTOS-ARTISTA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS- Importante Encuentro con el Genio, en el CENTRE PICASSO de HORTA DE SANT JOAN he disfrutado, como hacía tiempo que no me sucedía, de la maravillosa obra, pintura y muchos dibujos realizados en el pueblo en sus dos estancias, Pablo Ruiz Picasso trabajó en la creatividad plástica a través de las motivaciones que aquí encontró,quiero subrayar su cantidad de apuntes y también sus retratos de los habitantes y amigos, el joven artista Picasso empezó en estas tierras de la Terra Alta de Tarragona su modo personal de ver el mundo. para terminar desarrollando el Cubismo. Recomiendo la visita al Museo y los que puedan entender entenderán. Fotos del artista pintor Ernest Descals en homenaje al Picasso m��s íntimo.

[artemisbarnowl]

All of the song and dance about the MONA women's lounge when the art is FOR MEN?? Women are just a prop to engineer outrage. And sure that's a statement but I'm supremely uninterested in being a prop, I'd much rather just interact with art as a person?

[thingstol00kat]

Picasso 50 years of sketches at the Pompidou, Paris Jan 2024

Amazing exhibition design also, huge space with floating walls , videos projected throughout. The sections weren’t very clear but it was overwhelming in a good way, you could walk through and still get a good sense. Would have maybe placed markers (colors?) to show which panels belonged to each section. But overall loved the panels hanging a few feet off the flooor

[jacqwess]

Picasso, en veux-tu, en voilà...

Picasso forever. Or at least, 50 times Picasso, 50 years after his death. I didn't see all 50 (!), I saw only 3. But I loved them all. However often we may have seen some of the works shown, they remain fascinating.

[taskmastercaps]

[ID: Five screencaps from Taskmaster, each showing a contestant replicating a famous artwork, alongside the original piece. Emma Sidi lies on the floor, surrounded by a yellow sheet, gold sequins and flowers in imitation of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. Andy Zaltzman uses a life-sized model cow, toy animals, mannequin parts and Alex Horne to replicate Pablo Picasso's Guernica. Jack Dee wears an orange wig, bandages and a fleecy hat to recreate Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Rosie Jones' piece is three metal barrels labelled "SOUP", with a logo of Sam Campbell's face in the centre of each, in the style of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans. Babátúndé Aléshé poses with his face covered, ready to hurl a bunch of flowers like Banksy's Flower Thrower. End ID.]

[blueiscoool]

‘Horrible’ Painting Found by a Junk Dealer Could Be a Picasso Worth $6 Million

An Italian family had long debated throwing away the unconventional portrait.

It’s not often you sit down to read a book about the greatest masterpieces of art history, then look up to find a stellar example hanging on your own wall. Yet this was apparently the experience of Andrea Lo Rosso, who began raising questions about a peculiar painting in his parents’ living room at their home on Capri in Italy. Could it possibly be by Picasso, the forefather of Modern art himself?

For years the man’s parents had argued over the unconventional portrait, which was discovered by his father Luigi Lo Rosso in the cellar of a villa in Capri 1962, given a cheap frame, and put on the wall. This did not please his wife, who despaired at the female sitter’s strangely contorted face. The scrawled name “Picasso” in the top left hand corner meant nothing to either of them.

“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Lo Rosso told the Guardian. “He found the painting before I was even born and didn’t have a clue who Picasso was. He wasn’t a very cultured person.”

“My mother didn’t want to keep it—she kept saying it was horrible,” he added.

The family sought out the counsel of the Arcadia Foundation, which carries out art attributions and appraisals. A member of its scientific committee, Dr. Cinzia Altieri, a trained graphologist or handwriting specialist, studied the signature on the painting. The foundation also enrolled the help of famed art detective Maurizio Seracini, who led a chemical-scientific analysis of the work.

As a team, these experts have confirmed the attribution to Picasso. The painting has been identified as a portrait of Dora Maar, the French Surrealist photographer, painter, and poet who was at that time Picasso’s mistress.

It is believed to have been made some time between 1930 and 1936 during a trip to Capri, where Picasso often visited, although he first met Maar in late 1935 or early 1936. The pair had a relationship lasting nearly nine years and, though she was an artist in her own right, Maar’s work has only recently received the attention it deserves. In 2019, a landmark retrospective of over 250 works by Maar was presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London.

If the attribution turns out to be true, the Lo Rossos can expect a financial windfall. The Arcadia Foundation has valued the alleged Picasso at €6 million ($6.7 million).

The artist painted many portraits of Maar in their time together, and several reside in major museum collections today. The auction record for a painting of Maar by Picasso was set in 2006, when Sotheby’s New York sold Dora Maar au chat (1941) for $95.2 million, according to the Artnet Price Database.

Unfortunately for this team of Italian art sleuths, their rediscovered modernist masterpiece piece is unlikely to fetch in the millions until it has been legitimized by official Picasso authenticators.

Andrea Lo Rosso said that, so far, the Picasso Foundation in Malagá, Spain has refused to even assess the work, which it believes to be a fake. The foundation declined to comment publicly on the work when contacted. It reportedly receives hundreds of authentication requests every day.

The Picasso Administration in Paris has also been reached for comment but did not respond by publication time.

By Jo Lawson-Tancred.

[bullet-prooflove]

4000 Followers: Barcelona - Matthew Keller x Reader

Tagging: @rosielou94 d @kmc1989@toheavenwmydrms@noxytopy

Companion piece to:

5 Times - Keller almost tells you he loves you.

Three Minutes - It takes three minutes for Matt Keller to lose his humanity.

Transactional - In the wake of your injury, you leave Keller a Dear John letter.

It takes a couple of months for Matt to track you down. You’ve rented an apartment in Barcelona, near the town centre because your working a legal gig for the Picasso Museum. Your business has been flourishing in the time you’ve been apart. You’ve bounced from Frankfurt, Vienna, Milian and now to here. Matt’s always been a few steps behind you, he’s missed you by twelve hours back in Italy.

Matt has never done this before. He doesn’t chase after women, he’s usually the one that does the leaving. The fact he wants to follow you, it speaks volumes.

When you enter the apartment he’s sitting on your couch flicking through a Spanish fashion magazine, his brow furrowed. He sets it down on the coffee table as you close the door behind you.

"I'm not giving you security details for the museum." You tell him drifting towards your desk to check your laptop. To your surprise it looks untouched.  

"You know that's not why I'm here." He says as he raises to his feet and approaches the desk. His fingertips caress the tiny terracotta dog perched on the corner. It’s new, an unusual piece, not expensive but he knows it’s a sign, one that you’re planning to stay for a while.

“No I don’t.” You say distractedly as you close your laptop. “Because you don’t give me a reason behind anything you do, why you leave, why you stay, why you turn up in my place in Barcelona. I get nothing from you Matt.”

“Avery…” He says softly, his palm coming to rest upon yours and you pull away because his touch, it always leads to the same damn thing. “You know how fucked up I am.”

“Yea,” You tell him meeting his gaze. “It’s a good excuse to hide behind when shit gets too real isn’t it?”

This right here, this is why he loves you. You see through all of his bullshit, you call him on it. You are the first person who has ever bothered to scratch beneath the surface of his psyche. The only one that sees him.

“Avery.” He whispers, catching your hand. He squeezes it lightly and your fingers twitch underneath his touch. You don’t have much mobility in it anymore, Woodford saw to that. “Please just let me show you.”

“We’ve played this game before and we both know where it leads.” You say as you draw away, your hand slipping from his. It feels like a knife plunging into his chest but he gets it, your protecting yourself because he is not a safe bet, he never has been.

You watch as he removes his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans before he takes out a ticket stub and places it on the desk beside you.

“This is from the night we went to that art show in MOMA, you were wearing that dress, the blue one with the white flowers.” He murmurs as his hands come to rest on your hips. You tip your head up to look at him and for a moment he allows himself to hope, he prays that this is the time he can finally get the words out. “I remember because…”

…that was the day I fell in love with you.

But the words they just won’t leave his lips, they die in his throat as he cradles your face between his hands, his forehead coming to rest upon yours. He realises in that moment that it’s never going to happen. Those words they’re associated with so many terrible things in his life. There’s no pleasure in them, no joy, there’s just anguish and grief.

“I can’t tell you what you want to hear sweetheart but I promise you I feel it.” Matt whispers against your lips. “I feel it with every fibre of my being."

“You should go.”  You tell him, your palm coming to rest upon his chest before you push him away lightly. “You’re just going to break my heart all over again.”

You twist away from him then, because your eyes are stinging and you don’t want him to see that weakness in you.

“Avery.” He rasps and sigh as you turn back towards him.

“Matt look…” You trail off because the last thing you expect to see is Matthew Keller on one knee in front of you, a little black box in his hand.

You recognise the ring, Alexandrite with an accent marquise cut, set between two diamond leaf clusters in a rose gold band. You’d been devastated when you’d had to sell it to pay Matt’s legal bills but you’d owed him, because he’d killed a man for you, saved you from something worse than death.

There’s a lot of history attached to that ring. It had been taken from your family in the late 1930s along with the rest of their belongings before they’d been shipped off to a concentration camp in Germany. Out of the four family members that went in only one came out, your Grandmother. That ring was the only memory she had had of her own family. It had been the first thing that you and Matt stolen together. It had been residing in a collection of stolen Jewish artwork, along with other Nazi memorabilia. The other shit that man had had in his collection…

You’d burned that place to the fucking ground afterwards.

“I hate shit like this.” Matt had told you after you’d deposited the three stolen pieces of artwork you’d managed to rescue inside Peter Burke’s porch. He’d find it in the morning, get it back to the place it belonged to.

“All she wanted is to see this ring one more time before she died.” You’d told him as you sat in the passenger seat of his car, looking at the circlet inside the tiny black box. “They took everything from her.”

“We did a good thing here tonight.” He’d told you as he’d walked you to your door that evening. “Consider this one on me.”

You’d taken him to bed for the first time that night.

And now he’s on one knee in front of you, with your Grandmother’s ring.

“I might not be able to say it.” He tells you, his eyes meeting yours. “But sweetheart trust me when I say I feel it.”

Love Keller? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Une bibliothèque, c'est le carrefour de tous les rêves de l'humanité.

- Julien Green

In the heart of Paris lies a treasure trove of precious books and cultural artefacts known as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Richelieu. The royal library complex, once reserved for scholars and researchers, is now accessible to the general public who can visit its magnificently restored reading rooms, garden and brand new museum

The site is a stone’s throw from the Palais Royal and the Comédie-Française theatre, all once belonging to Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), close advisor and foreign secretary to King Louis XIII. A patron of the arts, Richelieu was also the founder of the Académie Française for the protection of the French language. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) has over 40 million documents across four sites, the main ones being BnF François-Mitterrand on the left bank of the Seine for printed works and audiovisual documents, and the Richelieu branch for “specialist” collections - manuscripts, drawings, antiques and precious items.

The stunning centre piece of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Richelieu is the Oval Room which is the majestic reading room. Its construction started in 1897 with architect Jean-Louis Pascal and it was inaugurated only in 1936. Nicknamed the ‘Oval Heaven’, it boasts impressive volumes: 44 metres in length, 33 metres in width and 18 metres in height. It features enchanting mosaics, gilding, ornamental paintings, painted decor and unique pieces of furniture.

Among its priceless acquisitions include, the Great Cameo of France, Dagobert’s throne and Charlemagne’s chess set. Manuscripts such as the ‘Psalter of Saint Louis’, Victor Hugo’s ‘Notre Dame de Paris’, and a score by Mozart can be seen alongside prints by artists from Rembrandt to Picasso. Perhaps the star acquisition amongst its many priceless holdings include one of the first copies of the Gutenberg Bible.

From September 2022 the Oval Room was no longer restricted to accredited academics and scholars but to general members of the public too.

I recently went there to do some scholarly research for a side project and I was enthralled by the heavenly spectacle of the Oval Room.

[thinkingimages]

André Breton (1896, France - 1966, France) | Souvenir du paradis terrestre, 1953

Le mur de l’atelier d’André Breton, entré par dation au Musée en 2003, évoque la seconde pièce de l’appartement de la rue Fontaine à Paris, occupé par le poète, de 1922 à sa mort en 1966. Les 212 œuvres d’art et objets qui y sont regroupés rappellent l’esthétique défendue par Breton dans ses écrits et à travers sa collection. Il n’a cessé de l’enrichir, guidé par « un irrésistible besoin de possession », qu’il attribuait au désir de « s’approprier les pouvoirs des objets » ayant suscité en lui surprise et interrogation. Autour des chefs-d’œuvre des artistes qu’il a soutenus (Notre avenir est dans l’air, 1912, de Picasso, LHOOQ, 1919, de Picabia, Tête, 1927, de Miró, Boule suspendue, 1930-1931, de Giacometti, La Boîte-en-valise, 1935-1941, et Coin de chasteté, 1954/1963, de Duchamp), sont soigneusement accumulées des pièces en résonnance avec sa poétique de « l’œil à l’état sauvage, œil premier, libre de toute entrave » : des tableaux, des masques et des objets océaniens, précolombiens et nord-américains, ainsi que des objets trouvés, des objets populaires, des pierres, des racines, des boîtes de papillons. 

Brigitte Leal

Source : Extrait du catalogue Collection art moderne - La collection du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne , sous la direction de Brigitte Leal, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2007

[aurevoirmonty]

“ […] Le Beau et le Laid sont des notions relatives, qui peuvent varier d’une culture à l’autre, mais en Europe, chacun sait — ou savait — ce qu’est un beau geste, une belle action, une belle âme ou un bel ouvrage.La sagesse populaire dit qu’il n’est pas beau de mentir. Aux tricheurs, on préfère les beaux joueurs. On dira d’un vieillard qu’il a un beau regard. D’une personne laide physiquement qu’il y a chez elle une beauté intérieure. Ce qui est beau ne peut pas être mauvais. Toute l’histoire européenne est imprégnée de cette conception esthétique de la vie, indissociable du sens de l’honneur. Et ce que je reproche le plus à notre société actuelle, c’est de vouloir nous imposer le laid : le Centre Beaubourg, l’Opéra-Bastille, la peinture de Picasso et l’art moderne en général, le rap, la techno, une certaine mode, etc. Or, tout ce qui est laid est pernicieux, car toutes les horreurs que nous sommes aujourd’hui sommés d’admirer ont pour fonction de saper les valeurs et de détruire les repères sans lesquels la civilisation européenne n’aurait jamais atteint les sommets que nous lui connaissons.”

Jean-Claude Valla

[willytherat]

Picasso 1000 disegni a Parigi centre Pompidou

[justforbooks]

Ben Vautier

French conceptual artist known for his work featuring handwritten texts with quirky messages that had mass appeal

The French conceptual artist Ben Vautier – known simply as “Ben” – who has died aged 88, was best known for his Écritures – trademark painted epigrams in a simple cursive script on a monochrome background.

Instantly recognisable with their bold messages to the world, sometimes humorous, often political, always thought-provoking, his “writings” shout out from the canvas as if craving to be heard. “In my Écritures it is not the aestheticism that counts,” Ben said in 2010, in conversation with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. “I write to be read and understood. It’s the meaning that has to come across.”

The first Écriture, created in 1953, said, simply: “Il faut manger. Il faut dormir” (“You have to eat. You have to sleep”). It was an affirmation of life and the beginning of a series that would define his oeuvre for more than 70 years.

And, escaping from the walls, these mini-manifestos, which originated in the experimental culture of the Nice school of the 1950s, and Fluxus movement of the 60s, are now ubiquitous across France, to be found on postcards, stamps, wine labels, stationery and rucksacks.

Following Ben’s death, President Emmanuel Macron said: “On our children’s pencil cases, on so many everyday objects and even in our imaginations, Ben had left his mark, made up of freedom and poetry, apparent lightness and overwhelming depth.”

Born in Naples, Italy, Ben was the son of an Occitan French-Irish mother, Janet (nee Giraud), and a Swiss father, Max-Ferdinand Vautier. His grandfather was the Swiss painter and illustrator Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier. Following his parents’ divorce, Ben lived with his mother in Switzerland, Turkey, Egypt and Italy before they settled in Nice aged 14.He left the city’s Lycée du Parc Impérial at 16 and worked at a bookshop, Le Nain Bleu, where he first discovered volumes on the artists who would influence him. Interviewed last year for Forbes magazine and asked about his early artistic encounters, Ben said: “I picked only artists who shocked me because I was looking for something new, so I started with the abstract painters: Poliakoff, Soulages and Picasso. The shock of Marcel Duchamp came from a meeting with Arman, and after that, I opened up to the possibility that everything was art.”

“Everything is art” became his lifelong mantra, together with the other driving principle for Ben that “art must be new”. Elsewhere he said “My art will be an art of appropriation. I seek to sign everything that has not been signed. I believe that art is in the intention and that it is enough to sign.” When the Italian artist Piero Manzoni died in 1963, Ben signed his death certificate and declared it a work of art. And, following the birth of Ben’s daughter, Eva, in 1965, he signed her, as a new creation and a “living sculpture”.

Between 1958 and 1973 he ran a shop, Laboratoire 32, selling secondhand records, cameras, books and other publications. The space became a favourite meeting venue for artists of the Nice school, such as Yves Klein, César and Arman. N’importe quoi (Just anything), an installation composed of the shop’s interior, was acquired by the Centre Pompidou in 1975 and remains a testament to those early years in Nice.

In 1962 Ben had come to London as part of the festival of Misfits to perform a geste (happening) that involved spending two weeks living and sleeping in the window of Gallery One in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair. That year he met George Maciunas, founder of Fluxus, the Dada-influenced movement whose members, including Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys and John Cage, engaged in experimental performances and events.

Fluxus encouraged a “do-it-yourself” approach in its artistic creations, valuing simplicity above complexity. Ben’s work embraced this approach and made the movement’s aesthetic clearly visible to the public, in art galleries and beyond.

Striking works include the self-referential Je suis transparent (I am transparent, 1970), a print edition in black writing on a see-through perspex background; and If art is everywhere it is also in this box (1972), with inscriptions in French, English, Italian and Nissart (a subdialect of Provençal), decorating four sides of a large plastic cube.

Initially selling as multiples in limited editions at his shop in the 60s, his productions soon moved into the mainstream, making his signed works available as mass-produced “Ben”-branded objects. He believed that there was “no art without ego”.

His works are now in private and public collections worldwide, including MoMA in New York and the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam. Retrospectives have been held at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon (2010), Museum Tinguely, Basel (2015) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico (2022).

Arriving as a visitor in 2000 to Ben’s home in Saint-Pancrace, in the heights above Nice, which he shared with his second wife, Annie Baricalla, an artist whom he married in 1964, I was struck by the volume and variety of work that lay within and in the grounds of the house.

Commenting on this cuckoo-in-the-nest among a row of bourgeois residences that looked like a combination of fine art gallery, circus and junkyard, Ben confided with a chuckle: “Mes voisins me detestent.” (“My neighbours hate me.”)

He was a champion of minority languages, campaigning especially for Occitan – the tongue of southern France – and others, including Alsatian, Basque and Corsican, to be recognised in a country whose only official language is French. He reasoned that by preserving the vernacular, one can preserve the culture and dynamism of its people.

Ben’s first marriage, to Jacqueline Robert, in 1959, ended in divorce. Following Annie’s death on 5 June, “unwilling and unable to live without her”, according to a statement by his children, “Ben killed himself a few hours later”.

He is survived by his daughter, Eva, and his son, François, from his marriage to Annie.

🔔 Ben (Benjamin Vautier), artist, born 18 July 1935; died 5 June 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[immemorymag]

Léna Maria was born in 1985 in Perpignan (France). After studying anthropology and geography, she turned to photography. 

Since 2012, her work has been exhibited abroad, at the London School Of Economics in the UK, as well as in Rabat, Morocco (2013) and Hyderabad, India, at the Indian Photography Festival (2018). 

In France, she took part in a group show at the Musée Picasso-Paris in 2017, where her photographs rubbed shoulders with images by Man Ray and poems by Paul Eluard. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Prix Polyptyque and exhibited at the Centre Photographique de Marseille. 

She will soon be exhibiting at the BRIDGE festival in Athens.

[t-annhauser]

Non so chi ne parlava, forse Nabokov o vattelappesca, dell'esistenza in Russia di un romanzo che consisteva in un lungo e ininterrotto turpiloquio, pieno di bestemmie, mai pubblicato o pubblicato sottoforma di samizdat, di brogliaccio clandestino, e se fosse per me, se avessi molto capitale e una casa editrice, lo pubblicherei subito senza pensarci due volte. Così come esistono i Picasso dell'ultimo periodo, quello prima della morte, tutti cazzi e fighe, ritenuti minori ma certamente i più urgenti. Un atto liberatorio, autentico, senza rete. Chissà se esiste davvero questo libro.

Pablo Picasso, Couple, 1971 (Centre Pompidou)

[amphtaminedreams]

June 2021->June 2023: Photo Dump No.23

DATE SAVED, L-R BY ROW:

11th July 2021 [Bella Hadid photographed in Miami, December 2019], 10th November 2021 [Southbank, Lambeth], 26th June 2023, 24th August 2022 [GIANT Art Gallery, Bournemouth Town Centre], 16th September 2022 [Et Ochs RTW S/S23], 30th June 2023, 2nd March 2023, 28th November 2021 [the Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea], 27th June 2023 [Lyme Regis, Dorset]

26th September 2023, 1st June 2023 [Colors Festival @ Camden Lock, Camden], 10th January 2023 [Scorpio Platform Boot, Shelly’s London S/S23], 15th September 2023 [Bermondsey, Southwark], 24th September 2022, 8th December 2022 [Twisted Museum, Oxford Circus], 22nd July 2023 [Yayoi Kusama: You, Me and the Balloons @ the Factory International, Deansgate, Manchester], 6th September 2023, 14th November 2021 [Glass Animals live @ Portsmouth Guildhall, Hampshire]

17th February 2022, 29th September 2022, 17th October 2021 [the Other Art Fair @ the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane], 12th July 2023, 31st May 2023 [source: instagram account @howtobehumanpod], 26th August 2023 [Salou, Tarragona], 9th April 2022 [source: instagram @_brightsouls_], 5th September 2021 [John Galliano RTW S/S92], 27th August 2023 [Salou, Tarragona]

31st March 2023 [He Cong photographed by Leslie Zhang for Marie Claire China, issue 298, April 2023], 28th August 2023, 15th July 2021 [Normani BTS on the set of the “Wild Side" music video, released July 2021], 27th May 2023 [source: instagram account @howtobehumanpod], 30th May 2023 [details @ Coach RTW F/W23], 13th March 2022, 21st July 2023, 23rd August 2023 [Sitges, Catalonia], 27th September 2023 [The Design Museum, Kensington]

27th September 2023 [“Hallgarth” boots, Roker RTW F/W23 @ REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion exhibition, the Design Museum, Kensington], 15th March 2024, 1st December 2022 [Yayoi Kusama: Mirror Infinity Rooms exhibition @ Tate Modern, Bankside], 28th July 2021 [Christchurch, Dorset], 22nd March 2023, 3rd February 2024 [source: instagram account @sadborderlinebitxh], 14th February 2024 [Luar RTW F/W24], 16th March 2024 [CUTE exhibition @ Somerset House, Strand], 11th August 2021 [Beyonce shot by Campbell Addy for Harper's Bazaar, August 2021]

8th January 2024 [Disneyland Paris, Marne-la-Vallée], 7th December 2022 [Liberty London, Soho], 9th December 2023, 13th December 2023, 3rd November 2021 [Ulyana Sergeenko, Haute Couture S/S19], 29th December 2021 [Untitled from the Fractal Scars, Salt Water and Tears collection, Ester Teichmann @ GIANT Art Gallery, Bournemouth), 30th November 2022 [source: instagram account @mantramagazine], 9th January 2024 [Marne-la-Vallée, France], 28th May 2023 [Elle & Dakota Fanning, February 2023, via @ellefanning on instagram]

6th May 2023 [source: instagram account @howtobehumanpod], 1st August 2021 [Dua Lipa wearing archive Jean Paul Gaultier on the set of the “Demeanor” video, released July 2021], 9th August 2023 [the Southbank Centre, Lambeth], 29th December 2021 [It's a Rave Dave exhibition @ GIANT Art Gallery, Bournemouth], 21st July 2023, 28th October 2023 [Nili Lotan RTW F/W23], 31st October 2023 [Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets], 15th October 2023], 1st November 2023 [Disney, 100 Exhibition @ ExCel Centre, Custom House]

5th April 2024 [Museo Picasso, Málaga], 8th February 2024 [Bella Hadid for Italian Vogue, May 2024 issue], 28th July 2021 [Bournemouth Centre, Dorset], 23rd January 2024 [source: instagram account @wrencraftt], 21st March 2023, 28th September 2023 [Philipp Plein Resort 2024], 9th February 2024, 21st August 2023 [source: instagram account @_mysunbeam], 7th April 2024 [Benalmádena, Andalusia]

9th April 2024 [Málaga, Andalusia], 29th August 2021 [source: instagram account @aniko.arts], 4th April 2024, 21st June 2023 [Summer Exhibition @ the Royal Academy, Mayfair], 10th May 2023 [Zendaya photographed by Elizaveta Porodina for Vogue Italia, July 2022 issue], 2nd October 2023 [source: instagram account @eggsdoodz], 14th July 2021 [Lana Del Rey performing live @ L'Olympia, Paris, 27th April 2013], 22nd December 2023 [source: Pinterest account @gobrielle], 30th March 2024 [Hove, East Sussex]

February 2nd 2023 [Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today @ the Design Museum, Kensington], 10th April 2024 [Benalmádena, Andalusia], 3rd April 2024 [Mijas Pueblo, Andalusia], 19th September 2021 [Van Gogh Alive lmmersive Exhibition, Kensington Gardens, London], 7th November 2023 [Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture F/W23], 28th October 2023 [Bermondsey Street, Bermondsey], 2nd April 2024 [Benalmádena, Andalusia], 10th April 2024, 10th April 2024

[uncloseted]

Hi Christina!

I’m traveling to Málaga, Spain in a couple of weeks and I have a lot of anxiety because this is my first time traveling to a foreign country. I vaguely remember that you visited Spain, but I was wondering if you can share any advice such as your favorite / must haves travel essentials, how to enjoy your time yet be budget friendly? Not too interested in doing touristy stuff but I heard the beaches are nice? Do you recommend staying at an Airbnb, hotel, hostel, or a capsule hotel? Would love to hear your recommendations! Also, any followers of Christina’s can chime in as well, much appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

That's so exciting! I bet you're going to have the best time. I've never been to Málaga before, but I have been to Spain and I solo travel a fair amount, so I'll tell you what I know.

Starting with where to stay, a hostel will be your most budget-friendly option. The average price of a hotel in Malaga is around $101 USD per night, while hostels can go as low as $20 USD per night. Hostels are also better in terms of meeting people, since they tend to be full of young travelers looking to make friends. Just make sure that the hostel has good reviews and is located in a safe area. TOC hostel seems like a popular choice. As far as Airbnbs go, they tend to be around the price of a hotel and come with their own rules and regulations. They're a great option if you're working while staying somewhere long-term and want to get a sense of what it's like to live there, but other than that I would skip them.

As far as how to enjoy your time, it really depends on what you like. I'll typically see if Conde Nast Traveller has articles on the places I'm going (here and here), then I'll do a search on Reddit to see what people like, and I also check out Atlas Obscura to see if there are any weird or interesting attractions around. I love museums, so I usually check out which ones are in the city. You can also Google something like "best free things to do in Malaga" and you'll get a whole list. I would maybe check out the Picasso Museum or the Carmen Thyssen Museum, which are free on Sundays, the Contemporary Art Centre of Malaga, which is always free, the Museum of Malaga, the Alcazaba and the Gibralfaro Castle, stroll along the Puerto de Malaga and Paseo Maritimo, and go to the Malaga Botanical Garden. If you like food and you want to save some money on eating out, going to one of the markets could also be a really nice activity. Grocery stores are also your friend if you're looking to save some money- I like getting some picnic supplies and then going to sit in a park or on the beach. I would maybe also look to see if there are any tours you would be interested in or a class you might want to take in something that's unique to Malaga. For example, when I was in Iceland, I did a ride through a lava field on an Icelandic pony, which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and super fun. Finding things like that that are really unique can help to make your trip more memorable. Tours can also help you connect with other travelers, which is great if you're on your own and maybe feel a little lost. Just wandering around the city can also be a great activity in itself and help you figure out what you want to see or do.

For travel essentials, I think people will try to sell you on all sorts of gadgets, but I don't really travel with that many things that are out of the ordinary. I'm in Greece now, and the travel items I brought with me are a universal power adapter and packing cubes. If you're going to stay at a hostel, I would recommend getting a good pair of earplugs (I like the Loop ones, but honestly any of them are fine), an eye mask, and maybe a portable lock box for your valuables (this is also useful if you want to go to the beach without worrying that your stuff will get stolen). If you're staying on your own, I usually travel with a doorstop alarm, but that's really for my own peace of mind- I've never actually needed it. Other than that, I try to carry a few different types of medications with me in case I need them, and I try to have long enough charging cables so that they'll reach regardless of where I am, but that's pretty much it. If you don't speak the language of the place you're going, the Google Translate app is a good thing to download because it can scan written text and translate it in real time. I would also check to see what the public transportation looks like and if you need to download any additional apps for that.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but please feel free to send in follow up questions! Mostly, just go into it with an open mind and try to have fun. The unexpected parts of a trip are often the best parts.