Ah Picasso: The Good, the Bad, the Magnificent

What would the art world do without the protean Picasso?  Now in New York City you can view a re-trospective of Picasso as printmaker at the Museum of Modern Art and a fascinating show of all its Picasso holdings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

   While MOMA’s collection of the artist’s work is incomparable, the Met’s presentation is fascinating both for its origin and the fact that its 300 works represent every phase of the artist’s constantly changing imagination.

   The Met was founded in 1870 by a group of artists to display and promote contemporary art. But as monied tycoons gained influence and donated art works, the museum began emphasizing particular works of the past. It was Abby Rockefeller who founded MOMA in 1929 with her collection of 20th-century works concentrating on contemporary pieces.

   Gertrude Stein, along with her brother Leo,  the greatest collector of “modern artâ€� in the early part of the 20th century, for unknown reasons disliked MOMA and especially its seminal director, Alfred Barr. After her death, the Met was stunned to learn it had inherited a single work from her collection:  Picasso’s great portrait of … Gertrude Stein.  A finger in Barr’s eye and insurance that she would be forever seen in America’s greatest museum.

   Over time, other collectors donated or willed works by the great Spaniard to the Met.  Fortunately both good and bad pieces from his early career testify to his nearly desperate need for money and recognition. A fascinating imitation of Lautrec’s iconic Moulin Rouge posters is not very good.  Nor was it a success for Picasso.  A 1901 “Mother and Child by a Fountainâ€� is not the religious image it may seem:  Picasso painted it after visiting a women’s prison to show poverty and despair.

   “Seated Harlequinâ€� (1901) — Picasso was 20 — is one of a series of six great paintings in the artist’s “blue periodâ€� that coalesced the artist’s thinking and personal style. While all six works depict a figure or couple seated at a cafe table, “Harlequin,â€� pensive, looking sideways, still in costume with his hat on the cafe table, is surely the greatest.

   Another splendid painting  from this period, “Woman Ironing,â€� is sadness itself.  The putative subject, Laure Gargallo, had been the mistress of Picasso’s close friend, Carles Casgemas, a recent  suicide.  The artist’s sorrow and melancholy are manifest in the anguished picture of a woman barely in control.

   Then for curiosity and prurient interest, there is an erotic scene known as “La Douleur.â€�  Never before exhibited since it entered the Met collection, the painting of a man (presumably Picasso) being fellated by a woman (whose face is hidden) is not very good.  In fact, it’s almost amateurish.  Picasso later insisted he never painted the picture, a renunciation surely based on artistic embarrassment, since he created many erotic drawings throughout his career, and erotic subjects pervaded his late work.

   When Picasso painted “The Actor,â€� he left the blue period behind and with it his obsession with the morose.  Now he would paint the theater and its creators in rust and a dusty pink.  And each painting, including the wonderful “At the Lapin Agile,â€� on display,  would lead inexorably to the “Family of Saltimbanques,â€� the greatest painting of Picasso’s early career and now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

   There are other remarkable paintings in this show, including the famous self-portrait with one blackened eye, and one intriguing, dusty gouache that obviously led to the great “Boy Leading a Horseâ€� at MOMA.

    This is a compact, appealing and instructive show. Picasso was the greatest artist of the last century.  After seeing this show at the Met, through Aug 1, move on to MOMA, and you’ll know why.

   A Picasso Film Festival in the Wardell room at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library opens May 9 at 7 p.m. Call 860-435-2838.