Fundació Palau Caldes d'Estrac

Inaugurated in May 2003, the Palau Foundation 's mission 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. connected Catalan culture with the most important artistic currents of the 20th century.

Poet, playwright, short story writer and essayist, he has been a scholar of art, and very 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 the 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 trajectory of Josep Palau i Fabre. It also brings together an important documentary and bibliographical collection on Picasso, contemporary art and Catalan and French literature, open to consultation by the public. 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, theater, 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 the work of his father. This room incorporates the testimony of Palau i Fabre's collaboration with artists such as Albert Ràfols Casamada or its 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 with Picasso and, in the last years of the artist's life, of friendship. The “Dear Picasso” room contains the works by Picasso that Palau i Fabre brought together with the idea of exhibiting them at its Foundation, as a tribute to the most important artist of the 20th century and as a testimony to 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.

The academic studies, the set of graphic works or a small theater that Picasso made for his daughter Maya stand out. Some books dedicated by Picasso containing drawings are also shown.

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 with the help of the poets Josep Palau i Fabre, Jacint Verdaguer, Joan Maragall and Apel les Mestres, poets who They stayed 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 audiences when making visits to both the collection and the itineraries through the town.

Schedules

Winter hours (from September 16 to June 30):
From Tuesday to Sunday and holidays: 10:30-14h

• From Thursday to Saturday: 17-19h

Summer hours (from July 1 to September 15):

• From Tuesday to Sunday and holidays: 11-14h
• From Tuesday to Saturday: 17-20h

Closing: non-holiday Mondays. December 24 and 31 afternoon, December 25 and 26, January 1 and 6.