Picasso Played Me

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Pablo Picasso 1913

I knew that Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was a seminal painting in the history of art, the dividing line between modern art and all that had come before. Yet in the eight years I recently spent in Avignon, I never thought of it or Picasso, except one day. I was carefully placing my feet on the slippery cobblestones of Rue Laboureur, in the vicinity of the local library. In Avignon, the library is in a 14th century building, the former residence of Cardinal Ceccano. The reading rooms have the faded paint of heraldic shields on the walls and lovely painted designs on the beams that cross the ceilings. One of the joys of my stay in this historic city was studying from the wonderful art books in the collection and looking up from my reading to see history on the very walls that surrounded me.

However, on that day, it was the building across the street, the Musée Angladon that caught my attention, most particularly a poster of Picasso. I had never seen him like this. I mean we all have seen him in his usual south of France in the hot summertime garb of just a pair of pants and no shirt. However, this photo showed a beautifully dressed, distinguished man, in expensive shoes, a elegant suit and costly camel hair coat. He sat in a window casement, one leg crossed over a knee, as he calmly looked out of the window, confident, elegant, very famous, very rich, and quite appealing. It made me think, "What would it have been like to know him?" The next word that came to my mind was, "trickster." Yes, we all know that about him. We can see it in his eyes in every photo. His Demoiselles d'Avignon was originally called The Brothel of Avignon, where oddly all the women seemed to look like him. It took me back to something that Petrarch said in the 1300s, "You cannot cross the bridge into Avignon without encountering a thief, a beggar and a prostitute." Then a different memory came to my mind from 1996 - ah, a woman never forgets - of how Picasso played me in Paris at Le Grand Palais.

Now I readily admit that back then at that stage of my artistic awakening, I knew I was supposed to like Picasso, but.... At any rate, I went to the expo of the autumn season, Picasso and the Portrait, at the Grand Palais, which is indeed grand - enormous in fact. I mingled with the others who wished to do something cultural on a cold, rainy November day. We all looked so intelligent as we shuffled along from room to room, the master's works floating before our eyes. In one gigantic space, I found myself before a rose harlequin. A lovely piece, yes, but I was amazed and disturbed by the heavy dark brown line that outlined the figure. Why on earth did he do that? The whole thing looked so flat and lifeless with this ugly line around it. So I turned and looked diagonally across the room where I saw a portrait of Marie Thérèse Walter, his mistress in the 1930s. It was a typically deconstructed vision of her, but right beside it was what looked like a photograph. So I decided to go over and see what she "really" looked like.

As I made my way across the room, I noticed that the "photo" seemed to dissolve the nearer I came, until upon my arrival, I saw that it was a pencil sketch! What a slight of hand that was, and the magic tricks were not over. When I pushed my dropped jaw back into place and turned to where I had just come from, the rose harlequin leaped forth from the canvas, not longer flat and ordinary, but alive and vibrant. That heavy dark brown line contrasted with the pink to push the figure forward, bringing it out to greet the viewer. Who was this man? I think it was then that I fell for Picasso, or at least his paintings. He was a creative genius, with all the complications of personality and behavior that come with it. He was a master of ideas and images, a juggler like a harlequin, and an oddly honest trickster, who famously said, "Painting is a lie that tells the truth." Olé

Picasso Light Painting 1949

Most of his works are not yet in public domain, though the pictures shown here are. To see the portraits of Marie Thérèse Walter look here:

http://structureandimagery.blogspot.com/2011/04/pablo-picasso-and-marie-therese-walter.html

I would love to hear some of your art experiences, so log in and comment.

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle

I also have an engaging art history blog that talks of painting and wine on ofartandwine.com

© Marjorie Vernelle 2019

#pablopicasso #picassoandtheportrait #lesdemoisellesdavignon

Matisse On My Mind

Jazz. As I dreamily awoke this morning, I heard the last strains of a beautiful jazz piece called Rhythm (at least, that's the name in my dream). My first thought was Matisse. Even early on in his career, he understood rhythm. You can see it here in his 1910 masterpiece, The Dance. After his struggle with cancer began in 1941, he turned to sculpting with scissors to create colored gouache cut-outs, which he published in 1947 with the title Jazz.

Jazz, that distinctly American creation which found a home in Europe, was a great inspiration that in turn inspired others. Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter of geometric compostions in primary colors, only listened to jazz when he worked. I do, too, though I have yet to make a grand contribution to the world of art - sigh - but I love Mondrian, and I love Matisse. When I lived on the Côte d'Azur in Antibes, I'd sometimes go to Nice and visit the places related to Matisse. I'd look down the long concourse that is the Cours Saleya, beyond Le Marché aux fleurs (the flower market) and see that wonderful yellow building at the far eastern end. Matisse lived there from 1921 to 1938, and I am sure he enjoyed the view of the activity on the Cours Saleya, while being a bit above it all.

I think he liked being above it all. A trip up into the hills of Cimiex would take me by the Regina, formerly an elegant Victorian-era hotel, now an elegant building of apartments, where Matisse had two from 1938 until his death in 1954. While I admired the rolling green lawn and the elegant white building, the real prize in Cimiex is in Les Arènes, where one finds the remains of a Roman arena (still used for Nice's summer jazz festival), a Byzantine style cathedral (Notre Dame de Cimiex), a park where all the lanes and walkways bear the names of jazz musicians, and the glorious, deep pink Matisse Museum with its treasure of Jazz Cut Outs. I've seen it ranked as #57 out 143 things to do in Nice, but I put it in the top 10. In particular, I found that experiencing the Cut Outs was heightened by a stroll through the park along those lanes named for jazz greats. You can literally stand at the corner of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, and that is certainly inspiring. In fact I wrote a story with that title in my book Upon the Bay of Angels . ( I leave a link here https://amzn.to/2AHSMKk)

Recently Matisse has come into my life when I, too, became inspired by the maiden masks done by the Punu people of Gabon in West Africa. Both Matisse and his rival/friend Pablo Picasso were inspired by this different way of seeing. Picasso developed Analytic Cubism, and Matisse did portraits like this one of his wife:

I am fascinated to see the cross-cultural influences that unfortunately sometimes are missed as time passes. Inspiration comes in many forms and in turn engenders so many others. The main thing is to keep being inspired and to keep creating.

For more on Matisse, I leave you this link:

https://amzn.to/2snKXoB

For my inspiration, I drew an interpretation of a maiden mask,

originally carved to show one of their beautiful women. I call my

drawing of her, Bella. For more of my African-inspired pieces, go to the

Africa: Human/Nature page on this website.

I would love to hear your art experiences, so please share them by logging in on the Home page and commenting in the blog.

So until the next inspiration, just remember

Art is a forever project.

#henrimatisse #jazzcutouts

Note: Images of Matisse's work are from

public domain sources.

For more information on Nice, please see

bestofniceblog.com Allison Coe has the latest info.

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle

She also has an engaging art history blog that talks of painting and wine on ofartandwine.com

© Marjorie Vernelle 2019