Culture Fiend

Robert Doisneau, Picasso Behind a Window, 1952, gelatin silver print, 19 11/16 × 25 9/16 in. Archives Picasso. Courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © atelier Robert Doisneau.

“The woman with a cataract” is the first painting you’ll see in the exhibit. “She was a kind of pimp in the seedy neighborhood Picasso frequented in Barcelona,” says SAM curator Chiyo Ishikawa. “She could get you anything you wanted, legal or illegal. She’s somebody he remembers very fondly.” Note the hint of pink in her cheeks as he starts to transition into his Rose Period.

Pablo Picasso, La Celestina, March 1904, oil on canvas, 29 5/16 × 23 1/16 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“During his Rose Period, Picasso liked to paint people who were outsiders by choice: circus performers, traveling acrobats. These two brothers are associated with the circus because of the brightly colored drum and begging bowl.” —Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM curator

Pablo Picasso, The Two Brothers, summer 1906, oil on canvas, 31 1/2 × 23 1/4 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York.

“Picasso’s always portraying real things—he never was an abstract artist.” —Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM curator

Pablo Picasso, The Acrobat, January 30, 1918, oil on canvas, 63 3/4 × 51 3/16 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“We see Picasso’s first wife Olga wearing a Spanish dress he bought her, leaning against a chair that has needlepoint draped over it,” says Chiyo Ishikawa. “He paints very faithfully from a photograph—you’ve never seen him do this before—but he doesn’t fill in the background. He leaves her pinned like a butterfly to that flat surface.”

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Olga in an Armchair, Fall 1918, oil on canvas, 51 3/16 × 34 15/16 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“This is probably the most naked, exuberant image he ever created,” says Chiyo Ishikawa, noting that it was painted during the early (happy) years of Picasso’s marriage to Olga. “It makes you realize how rarely he portrays figures in motion. You can hear them running on the beach—thud, thud, thud. They weigh 3 tons each.”

Pablo Picasso, Two women running on the beach (The Race), summer 1922, gouache on plywood, 12 13/16 × 16 3/16 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

There’s a veiled reference here to Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse, when she was still his “secret lover,” says Musée Picasso curator Anne Baldassari.

Pablo Picasso, Still Life on a Pedestal Table, March 11, 1931, oil on canvas, 76 3/4 × 51 3/8 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“Picasso approached Marie-Thérèse [painted here] and said, ‘I am Picasso, we will do great things together.’ And she didn’t know who he was.” —Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM curator

Pablo Picasso, Reading, January 2, 1932, oil on canvas, 51 3/16 × 38 3/8 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“Picasso used sculpture to work through problems in painting. He would go back and forth between the media,” says Chiyo Ishikawa. Five bronze sculptures (including this one of Marie-Thérèse) stand in the room that Chiyo calls the “heart of the exhibit.”

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, 1931, bronze, 50 9/16 × 21 7/16 × 24 5/8 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Note the angular features of Picasso’s more challenging muse, Dora Maar, compared to the rounder, supple curves of his young placater, Marie-Thérèse.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937, oil on canvas, 36 1/4 × 25 9/16 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“Because Picasso was a Spanish man, Dora Maar had to cry for him. The weeping woman is a way for him to represent his own feelings. Maar was one of the masks of Picasso.” —Anne Baldassari, Musée Picasso curator

Pablo Picasso, The weeping woman, October 18, 1937, oil on canvas, 21 3/4 × 18 1/4 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

After Guernica, Picasso continued to meditate on the futility of war.

Pablo Picasso, Cat Catching a Bird, April 22, 1939, oil on canvas, 31 7/8 × 39 3/8 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

“Picasso is in a reverie, dreaming of Francoise Gilot, the first woman to ever leave him. He’s in deep mourning about his life.” —Anne Baldassari, Musée Picasso curator

Pablo Picasso, The Shadow, December 29, 1953, oil on canvas, 51 × 38 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Though Picasso hadn’t been back to Spain since 1937, he revisited his heritage in his paintings as he got older, says Chiyo Ishikawa. In his late 80s, he creates this jaunty, virile self-portrait, with cigar and sword in hand.

Pablo Picasso, The Matador, October 4, 1970, oil on canvas, 57 5/16 × 44 7/8 in. Image courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris, © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.