Well what to say that hasn't been already said about Picasso? I suppose the first thing is to explain how I came to encounter Picasso. I have just been to the Picasso, Peace and Freedom exhibition at the Tate North, Liverpool. So what to say next? Well the whole exhibition smelt of fresh paint. Perhaps I have become very sensitive to this as we have just redecorated part of the house. Nonetheless there it was - the smell of fresh paint. Something new about Picasso? Well perhaps.
The power of Picasso could be felt in the room. He was the giant whose talent was laid bare all around you. His predilections were also there to see but this isn't why Picasso is so mind blowingly brilliant. I don't actually like much of what he painted when compared to the work that really touches me. The simple things touch me. Not the massive and well publicised works but the small and simple line drawings, his way of turning just the simple thing into something so much more. These are the things that talk to me.
The exhibition itself tried hard to paper of the cracks of the force that is Picasso but failed utterly. So we read that Picasso was a communist and anti fascist yet he thrived in the Nazi occupied France and he made a fortune. perhaps much of the contradiction that is and was Picasso can be summed up by a photo of him looking very admiringly at a photo of Joseph Stalin. Kindred spirits perhaps. Picasso certainly had a great force of personality.
So what was my favourite piece? Without doubt it was a simple doodle he did on someone's wall in London in the early 50's. When the house was going to be knocked down the plaster on which the he doodle as well as part of the wall were preserved - no doubt by then it was worth far more than the house.
So was it worth the trip? You bet. Forget all the bumph and fluff written about Picasso he never fails to deserve every letter, syllable and punctuation mark written about him and his work.
Simon Marchini LRPS
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