Picasso at the SAM

Though I saw signs for months and months about the Picasso Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, I didn’t go until just before it closed! And I already had been looking forward to it since the Picasso Museum in Paris was closed due to renovations when I went in August. It has the largest and most important repository of his work in the world 150+pieces of sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs. A friend called me the day before with an extra ticket and I went from 10pm-midnight!

A few years ago I visited a Picasso exhibit in London called “Challenging the Past”and made a post about it on my blog while I was in London. What immediately struck me about the collection at SAM was the sheer amount and variety of mediums displayed. There was no written material given but SAM provided audio lectures on over 20 pieces and their website had a massive download on the collection. It was interesting to see what pieces people passed by and which ones they gathered around. Many of the pieces I recognized: The Kiss, Goat Skull, Bottle and Candle, Le Couvent, 3 Figures under a Tree, Seated Woman, Man with a Straw Hat and Ice Cream, and others. There were many sculptures had not seen before. A few pieces stood out to me:

The first, Le Sacre-Coeur, I immediately recognized as the cathedral in Monmarte in Paris. I was there this summer with my brother and loved the neighborhood, the steep winding streets, the small shops, the green pathways nearby, the absence of tourists! In looking at Picasso’s painting, I felt spoiled at the thought of having seen what he saw and having been where he lived for so long. Le Sacre-Coeur has many angles to it, demonstrating Picasso’s constant pushing of the limits of art as a medium to convey reality. He was never abstract. Here he captures attempts to capture how we view things from different angles all at once, why not a painting? It leaves much to the imagination, without much color, clarity or even finish as if it is still forming, taking shape before being fully expressed as the artist community we knew it was.

After seeing lots of seated women, his Massacre in Korea 1951 struck me. It is decades after his famous Guernica on the Spanish Civil War but still has similar drastic imagery with a very clear declaration about the effects of war. It has a cold, colorless appearance. The expressionless, rigid, robotic-like characters on the right contrast with the naked, emotional, womb-filled figures on the left. Some sometimes Picasso can be stark with his simplicity, sometimes it hits home nonetheless having succeeded at captivated us with more than our sight.

I had previously seen very few photographs of Picasso and it helped me place him in a more contemporary context that I typically remember-a lot of international conflict in the midst of his artistic breakthroughs. It was interesting to see pictures of his son, wife(s), and friends and see how they compared to his depictions of them.

Though it is not entirely fair to compare them, the exhibit in London was more informative about the full development of and specific influences on Picasso; in printed material, visual outlines, and audio summaries. Granted, they were specifically relating the whole exhibit to how Picasso challenged the past, but having a broader discussion of art history allowed for a greater appreciation of how he interacted with past artists like Money and Valasquez. SAM did have more art, especially photographs, and laid it out well with good lighting.

I hit a mental break, I could not process it all. I met one acquaintance who was there from 7-12! It was all good to see but I faced my limit. It left me thinking and contemplating, the imprint of great art. I also left being grateful , grateful for being able to see so many places in the world and so many different works of art, far more than I would have even dreamed of ten years ago. I felt like I bore a responsibility to not forfeit, flaunt or forget that privilege but somehow enjoy it, share it, use it again and again…