Art: Rebel’s Return

When Franco’s forces won the civil war in Spain, ardent Loyalist Pablo Picasso vowed he would never return, never exhibit in his native land while Franco was there. Last week Picasso relented, at least to the point of letting 48 of his works be shown in Barcelona’s Gaspar Gallery. Franco’s government, which granted the works a temporary customs permit to enter, did nothing to muzzle the press. Result: a jampacked exhibition, ringing press tributes to Picasso as “the painter of our time.”