Picasso

A true master...

So as of Saturday I had yet to do my Gaudi tour; mostly due to listening to the weather man (and the weather network). Friday I had intended to do all things Gaudi but the day started off exceptionally cloudy, grey and looking as though the heavens were going to open up at any second so I opted to go somewhere indoors and as the Picasso Museum was on my list of must sees I headed there. I am not sorry at all - it was amazing!! I am certainly not an art history major so there are lots & lots of things that I do not know about art & artists and Picasso is no different. I had no idea that he was such a technician - the man could paint anything and in any style - his protraiture was incredible (and at such a young age!). His anatomy studies were amazing as well as simple street or countryside scenes. To me Picasso has always meant Cubism or disjointed portraits or the Blue period; I knew he was a genius, just didn't realize to what level. I also had no idea that he had worked in ceramics late in his life - there were plates, bowls, pitchers; all done up in wonderful colours and pictures that were instantly recognisable as Picasso. Again, was there anything he could not do? What was most enjoyable was seeing the sketches that let to some of his paintings and just getting to see all of the different periods he went through. The one thing that really blew me away was a series called Las Meninas that is based on Diego Velasquez's painting of the same name. Now this calls for some backtracking to Madrid; I saw Velasquez's work at the Thyssen & I was not all that impressed by it - art is subjective after all and his work just didn't affect me the way other artists did. However, having seen Picasso's interpretation (as well as a really neat multi-media piece overlaying Picasso's paintings over Velasquez's) gave me a different insight into the original painting. I'm still not a big fan of Diego Velasquez in any way but I now have a new appreciation of him. Art is weird that way - just when you think you've got a handle on it...

One other thing about the Picasso museum was the temporary exhibit they had - it was the photography of Lee Miller who along w/ her husband Roger Penrose (Picasso's biographer) were close friends of the artist and pretty much any of the photos that would come to your mind as famous ones of Picasso were done by her. So the exhibit was a vast collection of the many photographs she had done of Picasso both at work & play as well as a history of Lee Miller herself. She was an amazing woman - she started out as a model & an actress and became this amazing photographer, war correspondent and political activist. I am sad that I did not know anything about her until now.