Picasso Portraits / The 10 Highlights – National Portrait Gallery – London – October 2016
As usual with a Picasso exhibition, the bar is set high. And the show does not disappoint, first by the breadth of the work that is presented. It shows a clear attraction, a keen interest, in the other. A reminder of the absence of landscapes in Picasso’s work: it all goes through the depiction, the deep exploration of the human figure and emotions. The cubist portraits are the most striking evidence of this: the representation, through its multiplicity of facets, of the human face. Emotions are sometimes reduced to symbols, codes, circles for wary eyes, distortions for pain. The work also reflects his tireless production, as if he is constantly holding a pencil, from the early caricatures, to the multiple drawings, paintings, of the people he cares for, of himself as well. This observation of the self, with numerous (well-known) self-portraits, is uncompromising – especially when old age is seen through both the fear of death and its acceptation. The portrait seems to have been the primary element of his master work, the point of departure, the brick from which all is built, and the show does a great job at showing this importance.
The ten highlights:
Portrait of Olga Picasso, seated with a distant gaze, in perfect neo-classical fashion. The light is soft and beautiful, reflecting the grace of Olga, her elegance, and maybe the growing distance with the painter. The soft tones, and simplified drapery, all isolate the stunning portrait.
Fernande olivier with black mantilla, a moving, almost full scale painting, with muted tones and beyond the easy strokes, a deep and intense emotion.
Self portraits – all of them!
Dora Maar seated, a surprising portrait, different from the well known cubist and colorful paintings of the photographer. This portrait is made of quick strokes of pencil and ink over a light paper, with an intensity that reflects the woman’s complexity. The hands’ gesture, crossed over the legs, as a protection against the (sexual) attacks of the painter…
Maya in a sailor suit is a joyful painting, so different, with bright colors, full of life.
Portrait of Jacqueline in a black scarf appears as a nice counterpart to the earlier portrait of Fernande Olivier, with a similar posture, but an emotion that is incredibly more distant, posed. The paint on Jacqueline’s face makes her almost statue like, in contrast with the deep emotion in the first painting.
Woman in an armchair (1947) for the abstraction of the portrait, reduced to the bare essentials and yet present and strong.
Claude drawing, Francoise and Paloma is a deeply moving portraits of Francoise with her children. She is represented with a simple line, so strikingly embracing the figures of Claude and Paloma. The simplicity of the painting, of the drawing, is a testimony to the evidence of her maternal love.
Old man seated, Picasso facing death, as a fighter.
The pencil drawings of Dora maar.
