Whatpablo picasso Was he inspired by the animal paintings in the caves of Altamira to design Guernica’s bull or horse? This is one of the hypotheses discovered at the recent exhibition about the artist from Malaga in Paris. HE Human Museum exhibits a temporary exhibition on the connections between Prehistoric art and cubist and surrealist genius, especially in the interwar period (1918-1939). organized within the framework of 50th anniversary of Picasso’s deathIt can be visited until 12 June.
It is not unimportant that the Museo del Hombre was the organizer of the exhibition. The place where Picasso visited one of his first exhibitions in the French capital was in the same institution now dedicated to paleoanthropology and located on the Trocadero promenade (west of Paris). There he discovered African sculptures and masks in 1907 and was fascinated. Numerous exhibitions have explored the links between Picasso and primitive African art. Quite a few people entered the comparison. cave paintings and sculpturesanother inspiration for this avant-garde genius to break with the canon of tradition.
The curator of the exhibition, Cécile Godefroy, explains that Picasso’s interest in this prehistoric art stems from “curiosity, squinting eyes”. Curiously, there is a definite correlation between the artist’s life and the discoveries of Prehistoric art between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. In 1879, two years before the artist’s birth, Altamira caves, near Santander. Pech Merle cave in 1922 and in 1940 lascauxalso in the south of France.
Picasso never visited Altamira or Lascaux, but was impregnated with this art through avant-garde journals that became particularly interested in these findings from the 1920s onwards. He also collected imitations of the artifacts found in the caves. For example, you bought a copy. Venus of Lespugue statuetteHewn from mammoth ivory 26,000 years ago, in 1926, four years after the discovery of this small statue of a woman that fascinated the painter. Why do I love my prehistoric Venus? Because nobody knows anything about him. Magic interests me. I do too”Picasso told André Malraux, as the French writer recalled in ‘Obsidian Head’.
The sensual, powerful and mysterious forms of Venus de Lespugue inspired her art. A distinct effect on canvases such as ‘The Woman Throwing Stones’ or ‘The Woman Throwing Stones’ from 1931blue acrobat From 1929, where similarities can be observed between the imperative freedom of prehistoric artists who adapted their paintings to the irregular reliefs of caves, and the freedom of composition of a Picasso in search of three-dimensionality. This interest in the primitive coincided with the evolution of his art. In the interwar period, it moved from a more academic cubism to a freer style, comparable to Juan Gris or Georges Braque in the previous decade. became one “magic” cubism.
multiple effect
Primitive art not only influenced Picasso’s female figures, but also in many other ways. It was a multiple source of inspiration. 40 works in the example. In abstract paintings such as ‘Circles and V-Marks’, he made black lines resembling primitive cuts in stone. He was also interested in one of the first artistic movements in human history: handprints. They are found in abundance in prehistoric caves, also appearing in works such as Picasso’s ‘Profiles of women in a cropped hand’.
The search for authenticity led the Spanish genius to look at himself in the mirror of those early artists. Like primitive people, Picasso fascinated by animals, especially for bulls. He actually collected his bones. This is what it looks like in a beautiful photo of Dora Maar showing a cattle skull on a beach on the French Riviera. He also made use of artistic objects in nature that are as simple as they are beautiful. beach pebbles.
One of the achievements of the exhibition is that it shows this multidisciplinary character. On the other hand, we can blame him for having few great works by the artist. Maybe ‘except’Venus of Gasonly ready Made by Picasso and closing of the exhibition. In 1945 he took a burner from a furnace, changed its position (decontext) and turned it into a female figurine. Its shape resembles a Paleolithic Venus. With his genius, he not only gave artistic meaning to that everyday object, but also allowed it to travel thousands of years. to prehistory.