Picasso's Variations on the Masters
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Picasso's Variations on the Masters Details
From Publishers Weekly Iconoclastic yet deeply rooted in the art of the past, Picasso endlessly copied, reworked, paraphrased and transformed well-known pictures by artists who obsessed him?Manet, Velazquez, Ingres, Delacroix?as well as images by Renoir, El Greco, Rembrandt, Gauguin, Degas, Cranach and Courbet. In Picasso's "variations" on these artists, he pits his powers of invention against the conventions of his predecessors. The detachment afforded by the variations enabled him to revitalize his art, to assess his own position in the western European tradition and to take up lifelong themes. Galassi, an art historian and associate curator of Manhattan's Frick Collection, has produced a handsomely illustrated study that adds a new dimension to our understanding of Picasso's artistic evolution. Picasso's variations range from a wicked 1902 ink-and-crayon sketch parodying Manet's Olympia, to the wrenching ink drawings made in 1932 after Matthias Grunewald's Crucifixion, to an orgiastic rape scene from 1962 possibly modeled on Manet and Poussin. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more About the Author Susan Grace Galassi was recently appointed Associate Curator of The Frick Collection in New York. Read more
Reviews
Throughout his career, Picasso used classic paintings as inspiration for his own work. Typically, the earlier paintings did not inspire just a single work, but a sequence of paintings, sometimes dozens of them.This book follows the in-depth process behind the creation of some of these sequences, including those inspired by Manet's "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" and Velasquez's "Las Meninas". Many of the paintings in each sequence are illustrated, and the commentary, though somewhat academic in tone, is quite useful.I am not an art historian, but I found this book inspiring, especially for amateur artists like me.First, it shows that, for Picasso, art was a process, rather than a goal. As the sequences develop, we can see him continuously reinterpreting the original, changing directions, as a way of exploring the original and his reactions to it. Many of the steps are incomplete, or inadequate in some way. I personally found this reassuring! So often, we only see the major works, and they are treated as if they had been perfectly formed, rather than the conclusion of a series of experiments. (David Hockney has mentioned that owning Picasso's catalogue raisonné made him understand Picasso in a whole new way).Second, the whole premise of the book is that is OK to be derivative (in the best sense). Our art culture places an extreme value on originality. The idea of copying great art, and being inspired by it to develop your own variations on a theme, is currently underappreciated, even though this technique has always been used by great artists. (In art, Van Gogh comes to mind. And in music, Bach, Mozart, and of course, all jazz musicians). This book shows that this approach can indeed be useful and productive, and if Picasso used it, maybe it can get some respect!In other words, if you are an artist, feeling pressure to create perfect, original works, relax! Don't be afraid to experiment.