London - Picasso, or Goya, or a bit of both? - that is the
central question at the heart of a new exhibition in London aiming to
shed a light on the influence of Old Masters on the genius of Pablo
Picasso.
A self-portrait showing 16-year-old Picasso as an 18th century
dandy in a powered wig was no doubt inspired by his celebrated
predecessor who lived some 150 years earlier, curators at London's
National Gallery said.
In a departure from its traditional focus on Old Masters, the
National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has devoted an entire
exhibition to the theme of how deeply Picasso, who lived from 1881 to
1973, was influenced by Old Masters, especially those from his native
Spain.
Unlike an earlier - and highly controversial - exhibition on the
same theme in Paris, the London show, entitled Picasso: Challenging
the Past, does not hang the modernist and the Old Masters side by
side.
Curators, keen to avoid a 'spot the difference' effect, have
instead opted for a chronological arrangement of the familiar Picasso
themes of self-portraits, models and muses, still life and
variations.
The effect is convincing: the most striking examples of Picasso
combining Renaissance and classical influences with 'Cubist
distortions' come in his portrayal of statuesque women, including the
painting Large Nude of Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso married when he
was 61.
'In both celebrating and parodying Goya's painting, Picasso
expresses his ambivalent relationship with the art of the past,' said
curator Christopher Riopelle, comparing the 1964 Large Nude to Goya's
Naked Maja.
'Picasso had a deep understanding of the long tradition of
painting before him,' said Riopelle, which primarily related to
Spanish masters, but also included Rembrandt, Rubens, Frans Hals and,
in the 19th century, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec,
Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Matisse.
'Picasso repeatedly pitted himself against these masters, taking
up their signature themes and techniques in his own innovative
painting,' said Riopelle. 'Picasso most forcefully reinvigorated the
European tradition in the 20th century.'
A key example in the exhibition is Picasso's 1957 take on Las
Meninas, the 1656 Velazquez masterpiece that prompted Picasso to
produce more than fifty canvas variations.
'I would try to do it in my own way, forgetting about
Velazquez ... They would be MY meninas,' Picasso once said.
Brightly-coloured, savage and humorous Picasso variations on
Delacroix's Women of Algiers and Manet's Luncheon on the Grass
painted in the 1950s and 1960s, are further highlights of the
exhibition.
'In these late works Picasso affirmed his roots in the classical
tradition in which imitation is considered essential to creativity,'
said the catalogue.
The visitor, meanwhile, is left to ponder afresh the yardsticks
against which to measure one of the most revolutionary and versatile
artist of modern times.
By showing modern art for the first time the National Gallery has
added a new element to the fiercely-competitive London museum world.
When Tate Modern opened in 1990, an agreement was struck between
the two London major art institutions which said that the modern era,
beginning in 1900, would be housed in the Tate, and the Old Masters
would be shown in the National Gallery.
'Tate Modern is the national gallery of Modern art. But Modern art
in the future may be differently defined,' Nicholas Penny, the
National Gallery's new director, commented ambiguously.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story