“It’s Pablo-matic”: An Exhibition of Picasso’s Legacy and the Women Artists Overlooked by History

The exhibition It’s Pablo-matic denounces the behavior of the Spanish master, who died fifty years ago, and does justice to the women artists of the XX^e and 21^e centuries that have not known its glory.

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published on 05/06/2023 at 17:52update on 06/05/2023 at 6:43 p.m.

In his show Nanette on Netflix, the humorist Hannah Gadsby exhausts the figure of Picassothis symbol of male domination that she ” hated “. At the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the exhibition on the master of cubism bears his mark, but is intended to be more nuanced and does justice to the women who did not know the glory of the Spanish artist.

It’s Paul-matic: Picasso according to Hannah Gadsby, from June 2 to September 24, is one of the exhibitions expected as part of the many celebrations, under the aegis of France and Spain, of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the painter of Ladies of Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937).

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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) remains one of the most influential artists of modern art, readily qualified as a genius. But in the wake of the #metoo movement, the figure of this extremely wealthy workaholic is tarnished by the accusations of control, sometimes violent, that he could exert on the women who shared his life and inspired his work. .

Separate the man from the artist? The Australian humorist Hannah Gadsby refuses to do so in the written and audio comments that accompany the works exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, unearthing in the paintings or drawings symbols of misogyny. Or pointing that penis in the middle of the web The sculptor (1931), proof according to her that Picasso ” himself could not detach himself from his art in his works ».

« Admiration and anger »

Catherine Morris, chief curator of the museum’s Center for Feminist Art and co-curator of Pablo-matic, offers a more measured reading. ” You are faced with the truly complex and nuanced situation of an artist who is unquestionably a genius, but also an anything but perfect human being. “, she explained to AFP, during a presentation to the press where Hannah Gadsby was not present. ” Admiration and anger can coexist “, also warns the preamble to the exhibition, organized in cooperation with the National Picasso Museum in Paris, and which wants to revisit his work from a feminist perspective.

Picasso in the midst of women, therefore, but not those he represented in his paintings, rather artists of his time. They ” did not have the same support or access to institutional structures that fostered the “genius” by Picasso says Lisa Small, senior curator for European art at the Brooklyn Museum.

The visitor can pause on drawings of nudes from the 1930s by the American Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), ” completely revolutionary at the time because it was then very difficult for women to be admitted to drawing classes “, explains Catherine Morris. Or on Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), figure of German Expressionism “ incredibly talented, both technically and emotionally », adds Lisa Small.

Also on display are figures from the American feminist art movement, of which the Brooklyn Museum is at the forefront, such as the African-American Faith Ringgold or the Guerilla Girls. This movement, embodied in the seminal essay by American art historian Linda Nochlin, Why were there no great female artists (1971), had taken off in the 1970s, during the decade that saw Picasso disappear.

Fifty years after his death, there are amazing (Picasso) works in this exhibition that I always love », souligne Catherine Morris. « My regret is that Picasso was largely the only modern artist I was taught. There’s a much richer story to explore that he can be a part of. “, she adds.