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Date Posted: 21:30:47 11/14/10 Sun
Author: LauraG
Subject: Picasso

Stewart �

I wish I�d been able to carry you around in my pocket Friday. I told you I was headed to Seattle for the Picasso exhibit and I remember you telling us he was one of your favorites. (The National Museum of Picasso in Paris is renovating and Seattle has their collection while they are remodeling.)

I could recognize a Picasso if I�d seen one, but was not particularly enamored with his work. But Friday was absolutely incredible! There were at least a dozen large rooms filled with drafts, paintings sketches and sculptures from every period.

I�m always surprised to see works I�ve seen pictures of before; the details, the sizes, the work behind the work is always so fascinating. To be standing so close that you can see the pencils marks seems so intimate. Thankfully, the art historians provide such interesting comments. I actually walked away with a sense of understanding as to why and how he did what he did.

Two Women Running on the Beach Pablo Picasso 1922

Women Running on the Beach (1922) [about the size of a 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper]

Paul as a harlequin (1924), oil on canvas

Paulo as Harlequin (1924) [ about five feet tall]

Never before had I had a view of the progression of his works as a whole. It actually began to make some sense. The idea that an artist could have such complete confidence in his artistic talent that he wanted to extend himself by trying to experience several perspectives at once or focus on an image in terms of different planes gave me a new way of seeing.

"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"

Weeping woman (1937)

I loved that he �played� with his works often merging media or trying to express two-dimensions in a three dimensional work or three�dimensions in two.

Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1959-60, bronze cast from the 1909 plaster original

�Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.�
Just the idea that he was stretching himself and how he saw the world through out his career was way more interesting than seeing him as an eccentric trying to push the �viewer�s� buttons.

�God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things.�

I�ve obviously just begun to break the surface, but I�d like to play a bit with some of his ideas.

One of the things I like most is knowing what my friends are interested in. It makes me want to know more, whether it�s so I can share with them or just have a sense of how they think. Thanks for sharing a bit of yourself. I could see how Picasso would pique your interest and most certainly could see how the way he looked at the natural world would be of interest to an actor in pursuit of a more thorough understanding of human nature. Whereas, he may have been interested in dimensions and perspectives of form, the actor explores similar questions of perspective and form in terms of human nature.

Thinking of you,

LauraG

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Replies:

[> Re: Picasso -- Stewart, 11:56:58 11/16/10 Tue

Laura, I think you have indeed appreciated more of Picasso by seeing his progression as an artist rather than some of his more abstract conclusions. In fact if you see some of Da Vinci's older works created without the finishing armies used for his earlier masterpieces, when his eyesight was failing, you see a more primitive yet nonetheless powerful window into the mans incredible talent. I've never really related my acting to my visual art except when doing some set design on a couple of plays. I think all art forms influence one another and there is nothing more spectacular than seeing a work that possesses all of the artistic expressions working in unison. To be transported to another plane through music, painting, sculpture, dance, film is a gift we can receive only if we make the effort . I've never regretted going to an art exhibit ,perhaps because it truly is almost up to you whether you linger around a work or not. Theatre, film, dance on the other hand requires a commitment on your part which can be both rewarding and trying depending no the material. That said it is always better to make a commitment to attend as opposed to just controlling the remote. For those interested I will be spending my holiday at the ranch as I pretty much always do.I hope everyone has a good thanksgiving. love on ya Stewart

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[> Re: Picasso -- kell, 18:42:18 11/16/10 Tue

Women Running on the Beach is one of my favorites by Picasso but I've also found Girl Before a Mirror interesting because, it's like the quote you posted... are we to paint what we see or what's behind it? She's obviously standing before a mirror as the title suggests but the mirror doesn't reflect the girl exactly as how she is. So, one might wonder... did Picasso paint her as he saw her and her reflection as how he may have seen what was behind the physical or maybe even as how she possibly saw herself?

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