An evening with Pablo

1966

     As a child, I, like many other children, couldn't understand why Picasso was a famous artist. 

To me, he simply couldn't paint! 

He got the eyes all wrong, the nose was pointed in the wrong direction, and he made all his subjects look weird. It would have been great if someone could have explained it to me. But nobody in my family – or street for that matter – could have explained why his work was so good. In fact, I guess the majority of the population were baffled.

They only knew it was good art because they had been told so, but as for understanding why it was good was a mystery – and the mystery no doubt added greatly to his success by presenting a problem-solving challenge which also created a mountain of hype.

My next encounter with Pablo was in 1966

I met a businessman who said he did most of his business with the “R and L market sector”and when I pushed him to illusadate, he said it stood for “rich and loony”. Well, I certainly wasn’t rich but it suggested to me that maybe I was a bit loony myself! 

Having dreampt (literally dreampt) of seeing colour on my little black and white TV set many times, I couldn’t resist getting my priorities askew when I saw a colour TV for the first time in a shop in Newcastle. At the time, they were only broadcasting one programme per week in colour but nevertheless I was drawn like a moth to the flame and suddenly found myself watching ‘The Virginian’ whilst sitting on the floor in my back to back in Gateshead (no money left for furniture). The rental charge for the TV was five shillings more than the rent on the flat!

I watched a TV programme where Picasso completed a painting from start to finish right in front of the camera.

I was excited at the prospect of leaning from the programme why he was so famous. It promised to explain his genius which up until then I found quite mystifying. The film was speeded up to fit into the timeframe of the programme so I guess it must have taken him about 10 -20 hours to paint the picture. I watched with eager anticipation to learn more about the man.

     The picture had several components which (I think) included a woman, a café, and a man on a bicycle. These components he enlarged, reduced, changed angle and position (much as today you might do on a computer in an infinitely more convenient way). But then, Picasso, had to hand-paint them only to wipe them out again, then re-paint them, then wipe them out again and so on. This he did over and over again.

Working furiously, almost manically, many times he placed the components back in exactly the same position he had previously.

At the end of the programme, the presenter appeared to be bowled over by Picasso's genius, but I have to say it left me  both disappointed and further confused. I was equally confused at the presenter's reaction who behaved as if he’d witnessed genius first hand.

Much like the child in story of the king's new suit of clothes, my overall conclusion was that he was either conning us into believing much more was going on inside his head than we could possibly fathom, or he was completely off his trolley. I simply didn't understand, and the modern confusion once again prevailed within me.

     Exactly half a century later I re-visited Picasso with an open mind and once again sought an explanation to his phenomenal success. 

This time, my investigation included: reading up about the man, examining the work he produced throughout his lifetime and the developments in art - and the world - that had taken place during his lifetime. Also, my new understanding of the key components that go to making a work of art (or an artist) successful afforded me a clearer perspective. In summary, my conclusions are:

     Picasso appears to have been, firstly, a talented (but not a fantastic) realistic artist - capable of painting in a realistic way. This can be attested by examining his student and early works up to and including some completed during his famous blue period (more).

 At the beginning of the twentieth century, much experimentation was being carried out by artists seeking creativity and looking to find new ways of working.  Creativity had become, more than ever, an essential ingredient/criterion when it came to judging the value of new art. Picasso was bold enough to think, and create outside the box and, I personally believe, occasionally performing tongue-in-cheek whilst keeping a straight face.