2023-06-12 16:24:05
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picassothe Prado Museum has inaugurated ‘Picasso, El Greco and Analytical Cubism’shows where works by the artist from Malaga are interspersed with paintings by the Cretan, one of the artists who most influenced him in the development of analytical cubism.
Among the many and diverse influences of other masters that came together in Picasso’s work, that of El Greco is perhaps the earliest and most decisive, since it began at the end of the 19th century when the man from Malaga, “almost a teenager, lives in Madrid and is a student at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts”Commissioner Carmen Giménez recalled this Monday at a press conference.
From his letters and drawings from that formative period, it is known that he spent more time in the Museo de Prado copying the great masters than in the Academy itself. “Picasso’s father got angry with his son because he was enthusiastic about El Greco,” added Giménez.
‘Greco, Velázquez, inspire me’ or ‘I, El Greco’ can be read in drawings from those formative years. Quite a declaration of intent for a young student.
Although almost all the authors agree in limiting the influence of El Greco almost exclusively to Picasso’s youth (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, France, 1973), the exhibition suggests that it was much more “deep and enduring”since it was especially crucial for the development of analytical cubism in works such as “El aficionado” or “Acordionista”.
Doménikos Theotokópoulos, alias El Greco, (Candia, Greece, 1541 – Toledo, 1614) accompanied Picasso throughout his career. In the first phase of cubism, the subject is broken down into geometric fragments that accumulate to create an image.
Picasso creates an illusion of relief and depth that is based “on shading and on which the two-dimensionality of the canvas stands out”, explained the curator.
This exhibition with only twelve works, which You can see until September 17offers the opportunity to understand the relationship between both artists, two original sensibilities that speak of the redefinition of the artistic fact through, for example, volume and color, composition, perspective, space, light or the challenge of academic dogma .
The exhibition also houses testimonial documents that highlight Picasso’s particular vital and artistic link with the Prado Museum, a relationship that began in his years as a copyist and ended with his appointment as director.
The director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Falomir, recalled that it took El Greco three centuries to be understood, but once he was recovered from oblivion, “turned into one of the great artists”, he provided Picasso with the keys to definitively break with art of the past and the pillars of traditional representation.
It is a “magnificently chosen” exhibition, added Falomir, who explained that “having the Prado the best collection of Grecos”, four of those chosen have come from outside, “because they are the ones who talk best” with the works of Picasso.
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