Nagy Ildikó szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 1980-1988 (MNG Budapest, 1989)

Perneczky, Géza: PICASSO AFTER PICASSO

PERNECZKY, GÉZA PICASSO AFTER PICASSO „Es ist eine recht merkwürdige Komposition: Ein Maler vor seiner Staffelei ist mit unerschütterlicher Ruhe dabei, eine nackte Frau zu malen, die ihm Modell sitzt, zwischen ihm und das Modell aber schieben sich zwei Gestalten, eine sehr grölte Frau und ein kleiner bärtiger Mann. Hinter dem Modell befindet sich ein Pferd. Ich frage Picasso: ,Die bärtige Gestalt ist ein Zwerg, nicht war?' Picasso: ,Ich wäre froh, wenn man mir sagen würde, was es ist! Und die anderen Gestalten ... Der Maler selbst sieht nichts: er schaut nur sein Bild an. Es gibt solche Maler, die nur ihr Bild anschauen und nichts sehen.' " (Kahnweiler: Gespräche mit Picasso. 15. II. 1955.) He was destined to have the age and fecundity of the patriarchs. And if the multitude and variety of the pictures produced during the last years is viewed, then there can be sensed the proximity of a characteristic trait of Picasso's, the attraction the irrational held for him. Though these pieces leave behind Picasso's earlier magic world and the irrational rites, with their baroque abundance and narrative scenes, often complicated to the point of embarrassment, it is difficult to explain such a flow of fertility and eroticism. The world theatre created by Picasso in his late years cannot be measured by the usual standards. An obvious comparison to make would be with the one and a half decades that have passed since Picasso's death, an assessment from the angle of the PostModern. But where would that lead, were it all possible to make? WHAT IS THE ARTIST'S (AND HIS MODEL'S) VALUE? We should make a closer study of a cycle of drawings, to come nearer to the secrets behind the scenes of this world theatre, a cycle which could just as well be the overture to the entire output of his old age. Not only because this series opened, like the bursting of a dam, the cycles unusually large in scale, but also because it is in this series that Picasso first arrived at the doubt and resignation, dissolved into an ironical smile that bring it close to caricature; yet these drawings also suggest *An exhibition of Picasso's Graphic Works was organized in Budapest by the Hungarian Museum of the Labour Movement in 1988. interrelationships beyond the domains of doubt and humour which at the birth of the cycle were as yet undiscernible. The series of drawings is that entitled Hie Painter and His Model, dated 1953—1954. This cycle was selected by the publishers from about 180 sheets drawn by Picasso within twenty-seven working days in the winter of 1953 and which comment upon the relationship of an ageing man and a young woman as projected in the setting of the studio, or less frequently of the circus and variety theatre.

1 The subject itself looks back to the pink period of long ago: the message is embodied by that "Bohemian" milieu of the artists' world, full of secrets, that has always fascinated the public. The reading of these sheets was facilitated also by the direct and fresh style of the invidual pieces; neither the heritage of cubism burdens these drawings, nor can the cold elegance of neo-classicism or surrealism be felt in them. Hie Painter and His Model became extremely popular within a short time, and even professionals inclined to place it alongside the classical series rather than classify it as one of the Isms of modern art. It is as if Picasso had 'returned' to a realistic style that directly represented emotions. Picasso's gesture was almost provocatively humane and eclectic at a time when avant-garde art had reached the most abstract language of style (tachism, calligraphism). Yet if one were to seek an antecedent for 77?^ Painter and His Model nearer in time than the works of the pink period painted early this century, then it would be primarily the etchings of the Vollard Suite of the early thirties that may be considered. A complete cycle of these sheets was devoted to scenes taking place in the sculptor's studio; the actual partner of the artist was not the piece in the making, but the female looking around in his company. It is also in that Vollard Suite that erotic scenes in the studio appear for the first time. The small studio is transformed into a bedroom with drawn curtains, or a corner for eating in, where the artist, now Zeus-like, now cast in the figure of the Minotaur engages in a Bacchanalian festival. The studio relationship between artist and model also appears in a few etchings that recall Rembrandt. It should be noted that the direct style of drawing, with lines set dawn rapidly and in a rather illusionist manner that indicates rather than represent detail, the style that would develop into the ease of great virtuosity in The Painter and His Model, had already appeared in some of the sheets of the Vollard Suite. In fact the thin and airy lines in Indian ink, and the impressionism' of the soft, glazing tones around or behind them, bring some of the scenes close to the virtuosity of the calligraphism of Japanese ink-drawings. It is tempting to