Friday, April 2, 2010

Decoding Picasso










BillAbq said...

Hi, Charles:
Enjoyed your take on the Picasso prints now being exhibited at MoMA. I regret I'm not there to see the show myself.
Your idea of outlining major shapes in different colors not only paired well with your textual analysis but ended up being unique art works by themselves.
As you're no doubt aware, Picasso had a profound appreciation for ancient art and was said to have commented upon exiting the Lascaux Caves that "It's all here; we've invented nothing new". His analysis has been borne out a number of times, the most recent being the use of perspective by artists who painted a group of animals on cave walls 33,000 years ago. (Move over Paulo Uccello.)
One of the oldest forms of ancient art are "meanders", dense, successive layers of jottings, lines and symbols. Picasso's etching "The Large Bullfight", 1934, demonstrates an affinity to the ancient meanders. The "ghost" images that puzzled you may in fact be "artifacts" from previous states which Picasso included in the final state. Perhaps a look at the earlier states might help answer the question.
Always enjoy your blog; keep up the good work.

BillAbq said...

Hi, Again: 4-22-10
At your suggestion during our recent phone call, I enlarged the "Large Bullfight" print from 1934, and wanted to mention several other things I noticed or thought of since we spoke.
To the left, is an upside down head of a woman, which I hadn't noticed initially and which you hadn't commented on either, but is symbolically important. I was also intrigued by the rearing horse on the right whose rear hooves seemed to be, curiously, on "rollerblades".
The print's theme relates to the old Greco/European mythological subject of "Europa and the Bull", with the Bull already impaled and Picasso's lover of the moment in a state of panic because of it. Since the print was created in 1934, the image is an allusion to the ominous events percolating in the Europe of that time. The Bull has been seriously wounded, Europa screams, the horse rears in alarm, the upside down head represents a world seemingly being turned on its head. And the worst was yet to come.

Charles Kessler said...

A few people mentioned (via email -- I don't understand the reluctance to comment) the Rape of Europa as a reference, but tying it to Europe of that time is a good insight. It certainly would be typical of Picasso to be multi-layered like that.