Original Title: Picasso’s Legacy: Paradoxes and Puzzles
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Pablo Picasso, the world-renowned and well-known artist. Picasso’s art works, together with him, have long been transformed into a monument of modern art. However, the public’s understanding of him is probably just a vague symbol.
Confusion and incomprehension are many people’s first reactions to Picasso’s works. How did the artist set the threshold for viewing? How did you write a modern art history by yourself? There are too many paradoxes and puzzles in the legacy that Picasso left us, and it is still worth chewing today.
After Picasso’s death in 1973, in his home in Mougins in southern France, he left as many as 5,000 oil paintings, 1,200 sculptures, 4,000 ceramics, 15,000 drawings and prints, 150 drafts and 156 illustrated picture books. In addition to the many works he sold during his lifetime, the exact total number of his works is still not available.
Picasso, who became famous early and enjoyed a high life (lived to 92 years old), was able to turn a stone into gold in his later years: the restaurant owner kept his signature cheque unwilling to exchange it, and the gypsy musician who suffered a hotel fire lost a piece with his signature. Guitar. Once, he suddenly got tired of being in a bullfighting competition, so he drew a picture on the cloak of the bullfighter. The angry bullfighter turned anger into joy when he saw the envy of his companion. There is also an installer, Genneck, who doesn’t want money. He only wants a big wrench from Picasso to do his job, but the lonely painter doesn’t give him a wrench, but keeps sending him paintings. In 2010, he will be worth more than 100 million euros. All 271 Picasso paintings were donated, because Picasso told him that you are my true friend.
In addition to his works, Picasso also left many photos and moving videos. Convincing his contemporaries, such as Surrealist and Dadaist Man Rey, model and photographer Lee Miller, and fashion photographer Cecil Beaton, created his mysterious side, Lucien Craig, who admired him, was allowed to track his daily life. When Picasso was alive, there were movies that documented his painting process. In the painting, he was either an alchemist (“Interview with Picasso”) or a master of suspense (“Picasso’s Secret”). After Picasso’s death, the directors let go of their hands and feet, and the nonsensical comedy (“Picasso’s Bizarre Journey”) and the interpretation of Anthony Hopkins (“A Walk of Mad Love”) both showed their abilities.
As an artist who broke the circle very early, Picasso’s works of art, together with him, turned into a monument of modern art in the turbulent years of the 20th century, but do people understand him? not at all. Under the monument, people marveled but doubted, preferring to treat him as a vague background of the times. An artist who is wrapped in too many anecdotes unfortunately flows into the market for conversation. More people admire his fame and fortune, but ignore the surprising creativity behind this painting magician and artistic revolutionist. origin of.
We do often feel confused in front of Picasso’s works. The contradictions and complexity in him are as dizzying as his analytical cubist paintings.
Countless photos show that Picasso’s torch-like eyes are simply too powerful, his eyes are like a black hole, and all the objects he stares at are captured and doomed.
When Picasso was a poor and unknown painter, the American female writer Gertrude Stein saw in his eyes that this young man was extraordinary and willing to fund. In his later years, Picasso watched the 27-year-old John Richardson for less than two minutes. The latter felt trembling. He spent the rest of his life organizing exhibitions and writing biographies for the master. We do often feel confused in front of Picasso’s works. At this time, you might as well look at his eyes, “Every painting of mine contains my blood. This is the meaning of my paintings.” At this time, you think he Should be trusted.
But this kind of trust is full of difficulties, because the contradictions and complexities in Picasso are as dizzying as his analytic cubist paintings. In 1937, during the creation of his most famous “Guernica”, Marie Teresa came to the studio and saw Dora Mar as an assistant. The two quarreled and fought, and finally let Picasso decide who Should stay, the answer was “I can’t decide”. This Spanish man who was spoiled by his mother in Andalusia during his childhood candidly showed that he needs women to be muse, and women with different shapes and personalities to stimulate inspiration. When these women are jealous of each other, he is even more frank. happy. This story is enough to condemn the “morals”, but it reminds us that “Guernica”, which is considered an anti-war masterpiece, is only aimed at the Spanish Civil War? Are these bloodshed and wailing only happening on the battlefield where the swordsmen meet? There is no male and guns in the painting, but a deformed woman. The tearing of human nature will bring blood to the soul. Once a person’s psychology is out of control, the arrival of the storm is tantamount to the power of bombs to destroy a city. The greatness of “Guernica” is enough to prove that Picasso was so good at melting ideological propositions and personal emotional experiences in one furnace, thus surpassing the two.
Picasso deserves to be trusted. Not all geniuses can start and end well. In fact, this probability is very low in Western history. A large number of geniuses who committed suicide due to poverty and disease, died midway, such as Raphael, Mozart, and Schubert, as close as Van Gogh, and Picasso contributed a perfect sample from a child prodigy to a master. He has experienced many abnormal deaths of close friends: his fellow hometown Casa Guimas and the German painter Wigel committed suicide, the poet Apollinaire died of the Spanish flu, the painter Friedrich died in World War I, and the poet Jacob died in World War II. …For the passing of these young talents, Picasso was deeply distressed many times. Fortunately, he was nourished from the process of communication, and he was able to stay away from disasters, specializing in creation, and experienced as many as 12 times in his life (according to Roland Penrose’s This is the limit that an artist can reach in the 20th century, and it is probably the limit that an artist can reach in the history of human art.
Therefore, Picasso in his later years is already such an existence, he is a benchmark, and his views represent the weight of art. He said that Chagall was the painter who knew color best after Matisse. He couldn’t paint a self-portrait like Frieda. As for O’Keefer’s refusal to see him, it can prove how arrogant this American female painter is. Picasso praised Chinese art very much: “I can’t see art in Europe and America, but there is real art in China. What I don’t understand is why you Chinese go to Paris to learn art.” He especially praised the fish painted by Qi Baishi, “There is no water in the picture, but it seems that you can see the river and smell it.” After that, he copied Qi Baishi’s ink paintings and painted a lot of grass and insects. What’s interesting is that before 1952, his famous “peace pigeon” in Asia, Africa and Latin America attracted Qi Baishi’s attention. Qi Baishi, who was nearly 90 years old, raised pigeons and painted pigeons himself, and said confidently: “He (Picasso) painted pigeons. When flying, draw the wings to vibrate. The wings of the pigeons I painted do not vibrate, but we must see the vibration in the non-vibration.”
A person is a history of modern art, and a kind of condensation of Western classical art. This is the artistic height that Picasso reached in the 20th century.
Picasso left us with many paradoxes and puzzles.
One of the most difficult to understand is Cubism. After the invention of photography, the talented painters in Europe at the end of the 19th century wanted to get rid of the fetters of classical realism, but they couldn’t do it. Picasso first established geometry as the new grammar of plastic art. In 2001, Arthur I. Miller, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of London, published a book, equating Picasso’s Cubism with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and pointed out that these are the two most influential major originals of the 20th century, art and physics. , Both of them have “moving beauty” in their revelation of space and time. The next question is, in that case, why does “The Girl of Avignon” look so ugly? The painting shocked friends when it was born in 1907, and it was not publicly exhibited until 1937. Jean Cocteau, a close friend of Pitt’s and also versatile, said: “Picasso ran faster than the United States, which is why his work looks ugly.” Today, people may not think this painting is rough (there are already too many The crude works are not surprising), but to really understand it is similar to that it is difficult for people to really understand the theory of relativity. Perhaps it is easier for people in physics and mathematics. According to Professor Miller’s research, Picasso was inspired by the French mathematician Poincaré’s “fourth dimension” concept. He wanted to draw the front, back and side of the object at the same time, creating a multidimensional object on a two-dimensional canvas.
What is important is that Picasso himself realized that this kind of paintings representing multi-dimensional objects must achieve “deeper similarity, more realistic than reality, until it becomes surreal.” Did he do it? Cocteau said, “At first glance, the gap between his still life and the real thing is like the gap between the clown and our costumes and language, but once you stare at it, the authenticity is reflected, moving people’s hearts, and unexpected.” Indeed, However, it is not easy for a person with a basic knowledge of culture to stare at Bi’s paintings.
The first obstacle to overcome is how to overcome the “trap” set by Picasso himself. He said that he paints is to write a diary. There may be three or four women in a portrait, so it is impossible to look at his paintings without understanding his life. As a result, people often fall into the whirlpool of gossip and ignore the paintings. In the essentials. The “truth” of Picasso’s painting comes from his autobiography, but it is confusing. As he said, “Art is a lie. It teaches us to know the truth.” The artist is not perfect and may lie, although perhaps he didn’t mean it. Another widely circulated saying is also easy to cause confusion: “I painted as well as Raphael when I was 14 years old, but I spent my whole life learning to paint like a child.” The re-understanding and performance of a precocious master of realism to things after time participates in space is not a child’s scribbling. He said that like a child, he hopes to regain the innocence of humanity. There is such a factor in African black sculptures, so Picasso likes all primitive art. Secondly, it should be noted that Picasso has a pair of extremely dexterous and clever hands, super versatile, in addition to oil painting, sculpture, printmaking, line drawing, pottery in everything. After 69 years old, Picasso was fascinated by the study of senior masters, including Rembrandt, Hals, Greco, and Van Gogh, and paid tribute to the masters in various ways. He often combines multiple people in one painting. For example, “The Korean Massacre” imitated Goya and Manet, and “The Robbery of the Sabine Women” imitated David and Poussin. He is also keen to recreate famous paintings, such as Courbet’s “Girl of the Seine”. The most famous series include Velázquez’s “Lady of the Palace”, Manet’s “Lunch on the Grass”, Delacroix’s “Al “Women of Geir”, each series has as many as 15 to 45 pictures. British art historian John Berg believes that these series show that Picasso lost his inspiration in his later years, but in terms of art appreciation, watching Picasso’s “famous painting series” can force today’s viewers to review Western classical masters in advance, just like we read Tang poems and Song Ci It is not a bad thing to master more allusions.
It cannot be ignored that although modern painting is against literature, Picasso is a lover of literature. He has participated in puppet shows, designed stage sets and costumes for the Russian ballet, and is a fan of silent films. From the four cat cafes in Barcelona to the laundry boat in Paris, the “Picasso Gang” has never lacked poets, writers and directors. He wrote poems and also wrote two plays, one of which was directed by Camus in 1944, starring Beauvoir, he and Sartre participated. This bullfighter from Andalusia turned into a musketeer from Paris, playing various face changes in the self-portrait. Suddenly it is a monster with a human head and a swordsman with a pipe in his mouth. The master himself is handy, but it increases the audience. The difficulty.
A person is a history of modern art, and a certain concentration of Western classical art. This is the artistic height that Picasso reached in the 20th century. In addition, because of the sociological level, Picasso often became a target of criticism, starting with Françoise Giro’s “Living with Picasso” published in 1964. Picasso pursued lust and beauty throughout his life, but death and violence were intertwined. He is fascinated by the theme of the relationship between the artist and the model, and he can sigh that the answer sheets he has handed in his life are terrible. Why did those women who had been favored by him died after they left him? Why does he love and destroy women at the same time? Picasso, the master who brought art from the 19th century to the 20th century, has any enlightenment for mankind in the 21st century? The above puzzles are not uninterpreted in the authoritative scholar Roland Penrose’s “Picasso”, but they are far from enough.
In March 2019, the 95-year-old John Richardson passed away, just as the Chinese version of the third volume of his “Biography of Picasso” was released soon. This is currently the most detailed and credible biography of Picasso. The first volume of the biography was published in 1991, and the beginning expressed the author’s love for the author: “Picasso possesses a kind of Spanish magic, which is deep and gloomy, but also rushes out with the lightning-like light of apocalypse, becoming a Mediterranean-style splendor. Light, this paradox is a unique Andalusian phenomenon.” Richardson’s biography is only written for 11 to 25 years in each volume, and the details in the book are quite rich. It is not difficult to imagine that the author did much for Picasso. defend. In recent years, Richardson has been polishing the final fourth volume manuscript. Unfortunately, he did not wait for the publication of the book. It is said that the English version will be available this year. How he will describe Picasso in the book’s epilogue is very worth looking forward to.
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