This past Saturday I had the priviledge to see
Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris @ the Va Museum of Fine Arts. I was invited by my Grandmother and we were very happy to be one of the thousands on the east coast to be able to view these works of art. I was very excited to see SO many people at the VMFA. We waited in a looooong line before we were allowed into the exhibition. I felt pressured to move along quickly and/or make sure others could see that were around me and felt I got a good chance to see everything well enough.
I liked knowing I was viewing something rare and when I really thought about it, it probably was a once in a lifetime opportunity. That being said, I wasn't all that impressed with a lot of the works. I respected the pieces and knew they were works that defined specific moments in art history...influential, innovative and all that. I just kept thinking, "This should be blowing my mind!". I wanted to have one of those life impacting moments where I just couldn't stop looking and thinking , where I was truly inspired by a monumental work of art. Alas, A lot of the time i would think," looks like he didn't finish this one" or " I really do not like that color combination " and " My kids could have done something just like this one"
Now and then my granny and I would cross paths and discuss how she knew I would like this one or that one because of the colors. We also tended to like similar works, especially the colorful deathbed portrait of the artist’s close friend Carlos Casagemas from Picasso's early career.
We also had our differences; One in particular from the famed Blue Period, defined by somber shades of blue and green.
Celestina (The Woman with One-Eye) (1904), I was fascinated by this realistic old crone Picasso had captured on canvas perfectly, especially her milky white eye. Granny didn't like this one so much.
Granny and I both knew that a good portion of the paintings and drawings focused on fragmentation, shifting planes, and skewed perspectives and were going to be a big part of the exhibit. Cubism revolved around the deconstruction and reconstruction of figures and objects on two-dimensional surfaces or in space with new materials. I think alot of people are most familiar with this style of Picasso. You could also see alot of the african art influence in his cubist self portraits. Common themes or subject matter that I noticed were skulls, nudes, family/friends, guitars, and nudes. (yes i said nudes twice)
I never realized how much Picasso loved nudes and ...well boobs. I was expecting nudes ,even penises, but man the guy loved super-circular boobs. Of all the anatomy of the women, there was no mistaking the boob or boobs. Now i am not saying I didn't like the art because of that, I just noticed the plethora of circles.
I could relate to the fascination of the subject of a skull, especially a cow skull (probably Bull in Pablo's case) since I myself have done many a painting, drawing, and sculpture of a cow skull.
There were tons of works in different media other than oil painting. Including Pablo's ink drawing, oil pastel, even assemblages and sculpture. While my granny was enamored with The Jester,
I found The Goat to be more appealing (she liked The Goat too, to be fair)
There was alot more printmaking than i expected as well. The man was busy that's for sure. This particular print (below) was my favorite. It might be the minotaur that draws me to it.
There were alot of old photographs of Picasso, his family, and hoity-toity friends. The photos had an adverse effect on me because I just kept thinking that he may have had a big ego. After seeing alot of art i felt could have been done by anyone it is hard to think he deserved said attitude but maybe it's just that I try to be so modest about my own art.
(i'm so cool)
