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Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, after Manet, 1961, Musée Picasso, Paris |
Picasso as a cultural cannibal
PICASSO:CHALLENGING THE PAST
National Gallery
THE grand master and most prolific artist of the 20th century is seen in a new light as part of this Challenging the Past exhibition at the National Gallery.
Not cast in the usual innovator mold, Picasso is understood as more of a cultural cannibal, cribbing from the best of the art world for his own gain.
The Spaniard was shameless in his use of other artists’ works, in his own words: “Bad artists copy, good artists steal.”
Picasso was a passionate student of the grand tradition of European painting.
El Greco, Velázquez and Goya were of crucial importance to him, as were Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet and Cezanne.
All of these artists are represented by major paintings at the National.
Organised thematically, there are rooms of self-portraits, female nudes, grand compositions and still lifes.
So how does he compare with his predecessors?
Some may be inferior parodies, a rip-off of a famous Van Gogh
self-portrait sticks out, but others come out as a modern iconoclastic
force, returning us to tradition with renewed vigour.
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