“It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby” Exhibition Challenges the Artist’s Legacy through a Feminist Lens at Brooklyn Museum

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

Picasso in the #metoo era

It’s Paul-matic: Picasso according to Hannah Gadsby (June 2-September 24) is one of the exhibitions awaited within the framework 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 of Guernica (1937).

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? Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby refuses to do so in the written and audio comments that accompany the works exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, finding symbols of misogyny in the paintings or drawings. Or pointing that penis in the middle of the web The sculptor (1931), proof according to her that Picasso “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’re dealing with the really 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 her 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 Picasso’s ‘genius'”, says Lisa Small, senior curator for European art at the Brooklyn Museum.

women artists

It’s Pablo-matic features over a hundred works, including pieces by Picasso and selections from 20th and 21st century female artists such as Emma Amos, Cecily Brown, Renee Cox, Käthe Kollwitz, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Marilyn Minter, Joan Semmel, Kiki Smith, May Stevens, Mickalene Thomas and Marisol Escobar.

The visitor can pause on nude drawings 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”, added Lisa Small.

Figures from the American feminist art movement, of which the Brooklyn Museum is at the forefront, are also presented, such as the African-American Faith Ringgold (currently exhibited at the Picasso Museum in Paris) or the Guerilla Girls.

This movement, embodied in the seminal essay by American art historian Linda Nochlin, “Why Haven’t There Been Great Female Artists” (1971), had taken off in the 1970s, during the decade that saw Picasso disappear.

Fifty years after his death, “there are incredible works (by Picasso) 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 is a much richer history to explore that he can be part of,” she adds.

“It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso according to Hannah Gadsby” from June 2 to September 24, 2023

Brooklyn Museum – New York