Myths and dreams for 4,500 thousand years have been “conversing” with the dove painted by the great Spanish painter of the 20th century as a symbol of Peace, when he himself was associated with the pacifist movement during the Cold War. And the name of this bird, the pigeon in Spanish “paloma”, he will give it to his daughter…
“My father attracted animals the same way he attracted people. It was mesmerizing to watch. His charisma was irresistible.” The memories of Pablo Picasso’s daughter, Paloma, in the catalog of the exhibition entitled “Pablo Picasso – The joy of life” co-curated with the professor, archaeologist and excavator of Ancient Eleftherna Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis at the Museum of Ancient Eleftherna, shed light on an unseen side of the great Spanish painter, that of the “joy of life”.
The report, as written by “ET” (f. 15/5) on the occasion of the positive opinion from the Central Archaeological Council, it started yesterday and will last until October 20. The inauguration was held yesterday by the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Picasso with Paloma and Claude. April 16, 1953
In the hundreds of books, articles and references in the international bibliography on the work of the great Spanish creator, “not much emphasis has been placed on what we would call the ‘joy of life’, the family life, but also more broadly the life of people in balance in nature , as he observed it himself mainly in the South of France and as he expressed it in his work through Dionysian mythology, through Fauns, Panes, Satyrs, Centaurs, creatures connected to nature, the bucolic landscape, the world of animals and birds, the music, the fun, the romantic element, overall with the joy of life” states Mr. Stampolidis. As he points out in his note in the catalogue, the exhibition is a tribute to the memory of Greece’s friend Claude Picasso, Paloma’s brother who passed away a year ago. His ashes were scattered in the Aegean. Paloma’s trip to Greece then triggered an old thought for a Pablo Picasso exhibition in Crete.
Pablo Picasso. Goat’s head in profile (1952). White earthenware plate with decorative coating and partially polished glaze
The imagination
“Claude and I grew up in a world where imagination was the ultimate benchmark, a world where drawing and creating with our hands was as important and necessary as eating and sleeping. Fantasy and reality were so tightly bound that neither of them was superior to the other. That’s just the way it was. I too had in front of me the evidence that imagination is something real, perhaps more real than reality itself, because we were the ones who had given birth to it” confesses Paloma Picasso in another part of the esteemed catalog. Her memories are accompanied by photographic evidence and works that reflect the deeply human element of the great Spanish painter who exerted a catalytic influence on the visual creation of the 20th century.
Pablo Picasso. Minotaur (1958). Oil on canvas. Private collection. © Succession Picasso 2024
And precisely this invisible aspect is approached by the periodic exhibition, which includes 62 works by Picasso, ceramics, paintings, small sculptures, drawings and engravings inside and outside showcases, placed in conversation with the antiquities brought to light by the land of Eleftherna, the which knows periods of great prosperity in Homeric, Greco-Roman and early Byzantine times.
“What fascinated me most, however, was his ability to concentrate on his work in a split second. There are several photos of him working at the table. One moment we were all eating together and the next he had already pushed his plate away and started drawing a linocut, completely engrossed. Nothing intervened from one moment to the next. Most people need a little time to transition from one situation to another, but he wasn’t like that!” remembers Paloma regarding Pablo Picasso and notes: “Every element of our daily life was part of his artistic inspiration.”
Pablo Picasso. “Faun Undressing a Sleeping Woman” 1936. Oxygraphy and aquatint on paper. Private collection. © Succession Picasso 2024
THE SECTIONS OF THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition begins in the atrium of the Museum with a reprinted frontispiece of a painting by Picasso that he calls the “Joy of Life”, inspired by family happiness on the beaches of Southern France. And a little further on is hung a head-mask of a bull from Andalusia, plaited like the one that the painter himself wears in his famous photograph that is on the facade of the exhibition, when the visitor enters the Museum. In the introductory area, inside the Museum overlooking the cradle of Zeus, Psiloritis, the marble bust of the Minotaur, which is a creation of the second half of the 1st c. A.D. (from a Greek original of the middle of the 5th century BC) from the Vatican Museums. Then the exhibition includes depictions of animals, birds, rams and bulls, protagonists both in the finds of the ancient city and in the multifaceted work of the Spanish artist. Next comes the section with works dedicated to Picasso’s son ‘Claude’, as well as bull drawings, ten Faunus plates, bull/Minotaur plates, 18 tiles with Faunus works and ‘themes of the joy of life’.
Info: “Pablo Picasso: the joy of life” at the Museum of Ancient Eleftherna. Until 10/20
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