The Influence of Women Collectors on the International Dissemination of Picasso’s Works

Abstract

The present article falls within the framework of studies on cultural transfer and artistic circulation, where processes of transmitting artworks are pivotal. It analyzes how the circulation of five Picasso artworks was powered through their loan for exhibition by five women collectors: Mary Hoyt Wiborg, Elizabeth Fuller, Mary Lasker, Marie Harriman, and Ingeborg Eichmann. The article demonstrates to what extent these collectors were key in the dissemination of this group of works through a process of systematic exhibition on an international scale. The study focuses on the processes by which certain works by the Malaga-born artist gained greater visibility through the temporary exhibitions and thanks to the intervention of these collectors. They acted as mediators that interfered not only in their dissemination but also in their resignification; these collectors influenced, through their own motivations, the assimilation and later reception of these artworks.