Exhibit to showcase Picasso's African side
"It
never makes sense just to hang pictures unless there's an idea behind
it," explains Marilyn Martin, director of the SA National Gallery.
"It was self evident the theme had to be Picasso in Africa because that
hadn't been done before." Picasso's 1908 Sitting Nude is seen with
a mask from Baule in Ivory Coast.
Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-1889
Gallery hours: Mon - Fri 08:00 to 16:30, Sat & Sun 09:00 to 16:00
Iziko South African National Gallery
Government Avenue, Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: 021 467 4660
Gallery hours: Tue - Sun 10:00 to 17:00
|
Idea behind the art
'Picasso and Africa', an exhibition that puts works by Pablo Picasso
alongside the African sculpture that inspired him, opens this week in
Johannesburg.
February 06 2006 at 09:03PM By Fienie Grobler
A world-first art exhibition of Pablo Picasso's works and the
"magical" African masks and sculptures that influenced him opens in
Johannesburg on Friday.
A collection of 84 original Picasso paintings and sculptures alongside 29
African art objects will be on display at the Standard Bank gallery in downtown
Johannesburg for five weeks.
 Picasso
back to Africa.
Photo: Valérie Hirsch/RFI
"This is a first. Nowhere else in the world has there been an exhibition
showing the relation between Picasso's work and African art," said curator
Marilyn Martin.
The display, which brings his work to South Africa for
the first time, shows "how Picasso was fascinated by African art",
said Laurence Madeline, a curator at the Picasso Museum in Paris, which has lent
most of the artworks in the exhibit.
Although he never set a foot on the African continent, Picasso's work was
strongly influenced by its art.
Validation
Woman with Joined Hands, is a sketch made for Picasso's Les
Demoiselles d'Avignon, which he was working on at the time when he first
saw African sculpture, at the Museum of Mankind in Paris in 1907. The African
works come from collections in South Africa but are similar to works seen by
Picasso. The names of their creators are unknown. "This gives us a way of
validating an anonymous artist – we pay tribute through this exhibition to
those artists," Marilyn Martin says.
"We have a very good selection of works which had never been seen...
showing the moment Picasso was so close to African art that he was inventing a
new structure."
The painting Demoiselles d'Avignon, now in a museum in New York, was his first
work influenced by African art but it is "too valuable to travel",
said Madeline.
The red-brown painting is of five women gazing at the viewer, with two of the
faces based on African masks he saw in a museum.
| 'A dialogue between Picasso and African art' |
"We wanted to create a dialogue between Picasso
and African art," Martin said.
The Picasso paintings include Three Figures Under A Tree and the colourful Woman
In An Armchair and Reclining Woman as well as the sculpture Head
Of A Woman made from iron.
"He not only saw pictures of African art in books; he was exposed to
African art from many of the former French colonies," said Martin. "He
learnt from Africa how to turn convex into concave, how to turn chubby cheeks
into hollow cheeks."
The African works, mostly originating from Ivory Coast, Gabon, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Liberia, Mali and Nigeria, were created by unknown artists.
The exhibition also includes a series of photographs of Picasso's life and
quotations from some of his conversations about African art.
"The masks were not simply sculptures like any other. Not at all. They were
magical objects," said Picasso in a conversation penned in the book Oeuvres
Complètes" in 1996.
"They were weapons. To help people stop being ruled by spirits, to free
themselves. Tools. If we give a form to these spirits, we become free...
"I understood why I became a painter... Demoiselles d'Avignon must have
come to me that day," said Picasso, who was born in 1881 in Spain and died
in 1973.
He started painting at the age of seven under the influence of his father, an
art teacher.
Picasso's works went through several stages. His early Blue Period was triggered
by a close friend's suicide and depicts isolation and urban squalor.
That was followed by the Rose Period in 1905, inspired by the colourful
performers of a circus in Paris and characterised by the use of rose, yellow
ochre and gray in his paintings.
Cubism, the experimentation with geometrical form, came after that. In 1915
Picasso started with NeoClassical Line drawings and his often violent depictions
of sexuality came in the 1920s.
In 1936 his work was affected by the Spanish Civil War which saw his paintings
dominated by mythological and Spanish themes but after the end of World War II
his work became less political.
The exihibit, sponsored jointly by the Standard Bank gallery and the French
Institute of South Africa, ends in Johannesburg on March 19 and then moves to
Cape Town from April 13 to May 21. - Sapa-AFP
Vision
 Mother
and children playing, 1951
The last Picasso exhibition in Africa was in Senegal in 1972. President
Leopold Senghor, a friend of Picasso, paid tribute to an artist "who,
like the ancient Mediterraneans and black Africans, used analogical images,
form-symbols, both to express his inner vision and make it known."
The current exhibition is at Johannesburg's Standard Bank Gallery from 10
February to 19 March, and at Cape Town's National Gallery from 13 April to 21
May.
found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Picasso and Africa
Standard Bank and French government to present Picasso and Africa in 2006
Standard Bank Gallery
10 February to 19 March 2006
Standard Bank, the French Embassy and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS)
have announced an international cultural coup for South Africa: Picasso and
Africa, an exhibition of works by the twentieth century European master, Pablo
Picasso.
Picasso and Africa will be exhibited at the Standard Bank Gallery in
Johannesburg in February/March 2006, and show at the Iziko South African
National Gallery in Cape Town in April/May 2006.
The exhibition is the culmination of longstanding partnerships formed between
these institutions that also include AFAA, (l'Association française d'action
artistique), Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and Air France. Discussions to develop
this ambitious project were initiated more than three years ago.
With President Mbeki and President Chirac as Patrons, the exhibition has the
full support of the French and South African governments and reinforces the
important cultural ties between the two countries. Previous exhibitions of work
by Marc Chagall (2000) and Joan Miró (2002) that were also organised by
Standard Bank and IFAS have formed the foundation for this groundbreaking
venture.
Says Derek Cooper, Chairman of Standard Bank: "We are delighted once again
to join these long-term partners in presenting to the South African public the
most significant collaborative exhibition to date."
The Picasso Museum in Paris and one of its leading curators, Laurence Madeline,
agreed to work with Marilyn Martin, Director of Art Collections at Iziko South
African National Gallery, to conceive and develop the exhibition for South
Africa.
Picasso and Africa offers, for the first time, a dialogue between Africa and
Picasso and explores the influence of African art on his artistic output, in the
company of classical African pieces.
Says H E Jean Felix-Paganon, Ambassador of France: "Picasso always relied
on different cultural traditions which he combined in his unique work. His is a
good example of the benefits of cultural diversity that France and South-Africa
are promoting together."
A major loan from the Picasso Museum is augmented by works from the Musée
National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou; as well as the Picasso family and other
lenders.
The exhibition has three distinct yet interrelated components:
- More than 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures, dating from 1906 to 1972,
which contain and communicate Picasso's African inspiration;
- A selection of works that reflect the diversity and rapid changes of which
he was capable;
- A selection of African sculptures, similar to those with which Picasso may
have been familiar. These were sourced from various South African holdings,
as Picasso's own collection is dispersed and too fragile to travel.
A prestigious book with in-depth essays by the two curators and other prominent
writers, will accompany Picasso and Africa. The book will include a detailed
biography, an anthology of texts on the exhibition's theme as well as
illustrations of all the exhibited works.
In addition, art education specialists for the Standard Bank Gallery and the
Iziko South African National Gallery are developing an extensive workshop and
educational programme, including a published resource for art educators and
learners, with the support of Business and Arts SA (BASA). The programme will
also cater for learners with special needs.
Picasso and Africa dates:
Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg: 10 February to 19 March 2006
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town: 13 April to 21 May 2006
Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-1889
Gallery hours: Mon - Fri 08:00 to 16:30, Sat & Sun 09:00 to 16:00
Public Lectures/Walkabouts (it is not necessary to book)
Wednesdays and Fridays : 13:00 to 14:00
Saturdays : 14:00 to 15:00
Entrance to the Gallery is free of charge.
Free parking is available, entrance to the parking is in Harrison Street (it is
not necessary to reserve parking).
Iziko South African National Gallery
Government Avenue, Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: 021 467 4660
Gallery hours: Tue - Sun 10:00 to 17:00
red also (french) La première exposition de Picasso en Afrique
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