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Wise old Picasso

(28 Posts)
petallus Sun 10-Feb-13 22:36:44

Pablo Picasso said:

'Everything you can imagine is real'

I'm trying to decide if I agree with him or not.

Jung came up with a similar idea and applied it to religion.

vegasmags Mon 11-Feb-13 23:23:36

I also love the Picasso museum in Paris, which is small enough to be on a human scale. Unlike many of these cultural joints, the explanatory notes alongside the exhibits are thoughtful and helpful.

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 22:14:11

Yes Lily, emperors new clothes. Saw the damien hirst pig. Anatomical rather than artistical I thought.
But when Picasso had pared down his drawing skills enabling him to draw a dove like this - that is what I think he meant by becoming young Jenny. He was a great draftsman trying to capture something in a pure way.

www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/modernmasters/virtual-exhibition/picasso/13-dove.shtml

annodomini Mon 11-Feb-13 21:25:48

Another Picasso museum is in the Marais district of Paris, in a beautiful building. The paintings are displayed by period and it's a good introductory exhibition for a Picasso novice.

Lilygran Mon 11-Feb-13 20:39:25

OK, Galen, that's what I'm on about. If I did that would it be art? If not, what makes it art when Trace does it?

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 20:23:23

Yes tegan the only time I have paid 4 euro to go inside a building site. I think the fact that his drawings were lost in a fire led to some very poor design of the remaining bits of the cathedral. Once in northern spain I went to a lovely gaudi building that was a restaurant. covered in sunflowers smile

Galen Mon 11-Feb-13 19:28:07

An unmade bed with a condom in it apparently

Lilygran Mon 11-Feb-13 19:17:57

And Picasso had demonstrated that he had mastery of drawing, painting, composition etc and then went on to do original stuff. Not like some modern 'artists' who couldn't paint a fence. But do 'original' stuff straight off. I'm still very confused about how art is defined today.

Tegan Mon 11-Feb-13 19:07:59

Terribly disappointed with the cathedral, Jess sad. And Park Guell was a bit scruffy looking although the trip there on the local buses was good fun. We spent ages trying to find the house where Gaudi designed those chimneys that you see in all the pictures of Barcelona, only to realise it was a few hundred yards from where we were staying. Unfinished business, is Barcelona in more ways than one.

Galen Mon 11-Feb-13 18:42:07

Doves? The drawings or the picture?
Neither do anything for me.
Now the Durer praying hands!

Ana Mon 11-Feb-13 18:36:28

I knew what you were talking about, jingl. But then I only skimmed through the waffle...
#diff'rentstrokes

j08 Mon 11-Feb-13 18:33:28

Nothing wrong with replying to the original post, is there? Unless you have become totally enthralled with any waffle you may have put up in the meantime.

hmm #getoffmycase

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 18:31:45

How are we supposed to know what you are talking about jo8 when you post in shorthand When you do that I feel as if I am having an interesting conversation and someone rushes into the room, shouts something that we are all supposed to understand and then rushes off somewhere else.
I seem to remember tegan that they do not have a very notable collection of his work in Barcelona so Gaudi was probably the best choice. What did you make of the cathedral?

Tegan Mon 11-Feb-13 15:32:08

Interesting programme a while back about the use of the colour blue in art; didn't realise that Picasso's blue period was due to a close friend of his dying, and it then showed him emerging from the depression that engulfed him through his paintings. Far easier to paint something that anyone can recognise [thinking Haywain'y stuff here] than capture an abstract mood. Will any painting show the futility and horror of war the way that Guernica does? As for what's real and not real, well our concept of reality is only our brain's interpretation of the images that channel into it through our eyes [and our other senses] and I'm sure we've all wondered at times if what we see is the same as what others see. Annoyed that I went to Barcelona but didn't have enough time to see the Picasso gallery [it was a trade off with the S.O. see the Gaudi stuff if we could go to Nue Camp for a day and, must admit that I really enjoyed that visit].

j08 Mon 11-Feb-13 15:08:42

jess I was simply replying to the original post. #notallaboutyou

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 15:05:24

One of your usual incisive and witty interjections jo8? Are you referring to Picasso's entire oeuvre or what?
You reckon not that wise or admirable outside of his artistic talent then stansgran? I think it is quite interesting that we want to believe that people who live a long time and are very good at something are also wise. Were Newton and Einstein wise or just good at physics? Is Ian Mckellan wise or is he just good at acting?

j08 Mon 11-Feb-13 14:41:39

It's cobblers.

Stansgran Mon 11-Feb-13 14:29:35

I remember science and charity being on the front of the RSC Annals some years ago and wanted to see his earlier work. I've been to the museum in Barcelona and recently to the one in Malaga . In the plaza in front of the house he lived in very briefly there is a bronze of him sitting on a bench. In real life I think he was heartless and randy.

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 14:14:59

That is pretty sweeping galen grin He painted in many different styles for about 5 or 6 decades after he did that. Don't you even like his doves?

Galen Mon 11-Feb-13 13:53:58

I think that is better than his later ones.
I don't like him, probably because I don't understand him

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 13:38:05

This is a very similar painting. He had a lot to un-learn. But the quote was also about being free and spontaneous in general I think, in order to let his talent free from his early training.
www.wikipaintings.org/en/pablo-picasso/first-communion-1896

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 13:29:23

Yes so do I petallus nice shade of satsuma.
I liked the quote from Picasso which goes something like : "It takes a very long time to become young".
I was not quite sure what he was getting at until I saw a painting he did of a wedding when he was still a teenager (I think the painting is in Barcelona, I'll see if i can find it) which was very skilled realist 19th century style. He took a long time to shed that training and become the artist who could draw a bull or a dove or a face with just a few spare lines.

Mishap Mon 11-Feb-13 13:02:15

"There is truth in feeling" was an adage that was about during my SW training - and it is right. If someone believes something then it is real to them.

petallus Mon 11-Feb-13 09:00:44

Jung reckoned that something can be 'real' in the sense that it exists as a strong belief (regardless of whether or not there is a physical reality).

So in that sense, Father Christmas is real.

Oooh, I want some sparkly orange nail varnish.

JessM Mon 11-Feb-13 08:51:04

grin - he was so prolific he probably didn't remember grin
I agree with him in one sense in that the power of the imagination is strong and people can make things real inside their heads. When i was in the dentist the other day I did a mental distraction exercise of my own devising which involved painting my toenails a nice sparkly orange colour. (beats the hell out of focussing on the inside of my mouth)
I have since painted them red but in my mind they are sparkly orange still.I think this is probably what he meant. Also he could then depict his imaginings.
But you cannot imagine things in the physical world and make them real, despite all the preaching of the positive thinking gurus.

absent Mon 11-Feb-13 07:59:26

He also authenticated virtually every "Picasso" presented to him, regardless of whether it was his work or not. One in the eye for the middle man, I think.