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Matisse and Picasso
By the time both had become renown, Picasso and Matisse had broken with tradition with the establishment. Gertrude Stein is the first to recognize the greatness of Matisse (1905) and Picasso. Matisse is deliberate, rational, and very French in the way he organized his thoughts. Picasso is a worker, impulsive, and immerses himself in his painting. "Les Mademoiselles d'Avignon" (1907) and Matisse's " and Matisse's paintings of females are compared. In 1912, Picasso invents the first collage, and is at the forefront of cubism. A Russian art collector buys 20 Matisse paintings and 50 Picassos. Sculptures and paintings of both artists are compared. Paris was the city of inspiration for Matisse. In 1917, he finds the light he wants to paint by in Nice, France. This was an act of cutting loose and leaving everything behind. In Paris in the early 1920s, Picasso's life is turned upside down. Matisse sets up a "domestic harem." His "odalisques" display the artist's passion for decorative pattern and motifs. Picasso parodies his work in order to provoke Matisse, and also to distract him from his "harpy" wife whom he hates. Matisse arrives in New York in 1930. America welcomes him like a star and gives him the Carnegie Prize, the Nobel of the art world. He then crosses the Pacific, seeking the Golden Age of Gauguin. He stays in Tahiti for 3 months. Unlike Matisse, Picasso did not travel, but worked in solitude in his studio. He works at night when he is "as close as possible to the unconscious." He uses neither pallet nor easel. Matisse works by the clock on a regular schedule. For Matisse, the painting season brought with it anxiety and fear. He wondered where his inspiration would come from. This segment features paintings of a Baroque chair and other "worthless objects." Unlike Matisse, three-fourth of the content of Picasso's paintings do not exist outside the paintings. His inspiration comes from life--women are the engine that drives him. Matisse, too, is a painter of the women who model for him. In the 1920s, Picasso's dialog with Matisse becomes more intimate. Picasso seizes on Matisse's arabesque, and incorporates roundness and color as never before in his paintings. In the mid-1930s, a Nordic beauty arrives in Matisse's studio--another "sleeping woman" to awaken an artist's inspiration. One of Matisse's habits was to paint during the day and then, in the evening, rub out what he had done. Unlike Matisse, who rubbed out his work every day, Picasso painted over the day's work, until a final painting may have a dozen or more layers. Picasso uses lines borrowed from Matisse, and later, Matisse borrows subjects, color, or lines from Picasso. During the Occupation of Paris during WWII, both Matisse and Picasso stay in the city. Darkness and evil can be found in Picasso's paintings of this period. No such violence exists in Matisse, and Picasso buys one of his paintings. In 1943, Françoise Gilot comes into Picasso's life. She sees Matisse's painting in Picasso's studio. Matisse is calm, but anguished and unable to sleep. He uses anguish as a tool in his painting. Picasso had fits of depression and sometimes had suicidal ideas. London hosts an exhibition of paintings by Picasso and Matisse in 1945, and in Brussels and Amsterdam in 1946. Unlike Picasso who liked public appearances and praise, Matisse appears only rarely in public. In 1948, both Matisse and Picasso move to the south of France. A living legend, Picasso is offered the Grimaldi Palace to live in. Matisse lives in a villa in Provence. His paintings are full of color. Picasso fathers two children at age 70 with Françoise. Picasso explores a new medium--ceramics. He and his family visit the Matisse household in Nice where Matisse is unable to paint, but creates collages instead. Picasso and Matisse had long discussions about the mystery of opposites and choices. Better discussions arise when talking about the dissimilarities between Matisse and Picasso, rather than their similarities. They studied each other's paintings to learn or to do the opposite. Matisse devotes four years of his later years to designing the Vence Chapel. He uses light to introduce immensity into a small space. In reply to Matisse, Picasso painted within the communist concept, "War & Peace" after Matisse' Sistine Chapel, as his own chapel. Matisse and Picasso often exchanged ambiguous gifts. A bizarre idol from the South Pacific, a gift to Picasso, raises all sorts of questions in the artist's mind. Once exorcised, the idol took pride of place in Picasso's studio. Matisse's high regard for Picasso's work was evident in his reaction to "Winter Landscape." He kept it at the foot of his bed, unwilling to let Picasso have it back. Matisse dies in 1954. Picasso moves to Cannes.
The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present
Goya, often referred to the father of modern art, left 80 etchings of war that reveal his dark political consciousness. Goya, completely deaf, focuses his artistic vision on death, the wrath of God, and man's inhumanity to man. He further isolates himself in a house on whose walls he leaves his infamous "black paintings," of witches, violence, and devil worship. For 50 years after Goya's death, Spanish art came to a standstill. At the start of the 20th century, Spain became a "powerhouse" of modern art. Architect Antoni Gaudi exemplified Barcelona's spirit of exuberance, represented in Park Guell. Unlike Goya, who rejected religion, Gaudi clung to the certainties of Spain's Catholic part. Gaudi's "Sagrada Familia" springs from his belief that he is "God's architect." Now, the cathedral is being ruined by modern attempts to complete it. A block of flats designed by Antoni Gaudi between 1905 and 1912 represent his playful experimentation with architectural form, and the organic nature of his designs. An interior tour reveals the details and comfort of the quarters. Gaudi's Casa Milà earned the name, “La Pedrera” because its series of curvy, cave-like balconies looked like a stone quarry. This movement towards the primitive is similar to Henry Moore's abstract monumental bronzes. At age 14, Picasso has his first sexual experience in Barcelona, one in a lifelong series of carnal experiences that lie at the heart of his paintings. At the same time, many of his paintings are expressions of religious themes. Picasso's brothel paintings are "soaked in memories of his Catholic past." The angular style of "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" and the female faces with staring eyes, presents viewers with an ancient Christian theme of temptation. The decline of religion did not mean that Spanish art was stripped of its mystical power, but it looked elsewhere for answers to life's big questions. Surrealism emerged out of this exploration of the unconscious and irrational. The overarching meaning of "The Persistence of Memory" by Dali is that all live is subject to death and decay. Dali's museum/burial place is filled with surrealist objects. Dali claimed the museum itself was the world's largest surreal object. Dali's "The Specter of Sex Appeal" (1934), made up of images of sex, death, and food, is a poetic expression of 20th-century self-exploration. He paints in the language of dreams. His "Premonition of a Civil War" is a disturbing portent of things to come. The Spanish Civil War tore Spain to pieces. Francisco Franco led the fascists to drive republicans from their homes and to commit horrendous atrocities on the victims. The ruins of Belchite remain a memorial to the bloody war. Picasso's "Guernica" records one of the worst atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. Franco's fascists rule Spain for the next 40 years. His tyranny against artistic expression forced most artists into exile. His death marked a liberation for Spain. In 1997, a new building in the north of Spain broke with the past and ushered in a new form of architecture and a new future for Spanish art. Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a Picasso-inspired monument to Spain's past and future. Santiago Calatrava is at the forefront of the new wave of Spanish architects taking the nation forward. The winery of La Rioja in northern Spain looks totally modern but is steeped in Spanish tradition.
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