On the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, exhibitions are taking place all over the world. But is it still possible to celebrate the famous artist like before #MeToo?
“Dora and the Minotaur” dates from 1936. It shows the monster with the head of a bull and the body of a human being sexually assaulting a woman. In Greek mythology, the monster eats children, in Picasso’s case it abuses Dora Maar, his muse and lover at the time. Sayings by the Spanish artist such as “For me there are only two types of women: goddesses and doormats” would trigger a storm of indignation today, in the age of #MeToo.
The picture has changed
Picasso’s macho and sexist treatment of women is well known. Numerous books and articles have been published about it. But since the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the view of the Spanish painter has changed. One has to ask oneself how Picasso can be shown today, says Cécile Debray, director of the Paris Picasso Museum.
When she took office, she found that Picasso’s aura had waned, especially in academic circles and among young people, she says in an interview with the German Press Agency. Debray was appointed as head of the Paris institution in late 2021.
“Picasso not only flaunted his masculinity, but also represented the act of love, often posing as a model for his significant other,” she explains. He took up the myth of the Minotaur and staged sexual potency. Today this biographical aspect is being questioned. A few weeks ago there was a conference in Lyon on the subject: How can Picasso be shown today?
Like many museums, Debray is also celebrating the anniversary of the artist’s death at her house, which marks the 50th anniversary on April 8th. However, in addition to a chronological exhibition of his important works, the program also includes two shows by contemporary artists. They should reinterpret Picasso’s work. And so the Afro-American artist Faith Ringgold addresses, among other things, the discrimination of black women, and Pierre Moignard deals with Picasso’s erotic drawings.
The debate about Picasso and his relationship to women affects her in two ways, says Debray: as a representative of the female sex and as an art historian. “I understand the #MeToo movement, which is ideological in its stance.” But she also has an institutional position to defend and that of an art historian.
cubism and surrealism
The Spaniard, born on October 25, 1881 in Málaga and died at the age of 91 in Mougins in southern France, occupies an important place in the art history of the 20th century. He was the founder of Cubism and a major player in Surrealism. He left an extensive oeuvre of paintings, works on paper, sculptures and ceramics. His most important works include the paintings “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and “Guernica”.
Picasso’s work is inextricably linked to his numerous wives. He depicted them countless times: at the beginning of a relationship in gentle compositions, at the end often as distorted figures. Of the seven women who officially shared his life, two took their own lives and two became depressed. The only one who managed to leave him was Françoise Gilot, who published the book “Life with Picasso” in 1965. In it, she described him as a moody man who made life difficult for those who shared it with him.
“Every time I change a wife, I should burn the previous one. That’s how I would be rid of her. They wouldn’t all be there to complicate my life,” art historian Julie Beauzac quotes him as saying in her podcast series founded in 2019 Art and Feminism “Vénus s’épilait-elle la chatte?” (Did Venus shave her pussy?).
The reflection on Picasso and the feminist or feminine view of his work is an extremely topical debate that should not be caricatured, explained the director of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona Emmanuel Guigon on the French radio station “France Info”. He does not believe that Picasso was violent towards women. It goes without saying that he was a man of his time, Andalusian, undoubtedly very seductive.
protest actions
In June 2021, young art students caused a stir in the Spanish museum, standing in front of the works there with T-shirts that read “Picasso, women aggressor”. Since then, Guigon has increasingly organized workshops and conferences in which the artist’s work is re-examined.
A similar protest action also took place in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2018. The performance artist Emma Sulkowicz, for whom Picasso dismembered the female body in his cubist paintings, presented herself half-naked and with asterisks painted all over her body in front of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”.