MemyselfandI
24 September 2011 - 15 January 2012
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| | André Villers, With revolver and hat given to him by Gary Cooper, Cannes, 1958 © André Villers |
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MEMYSELFANDI
Photographic Portraits of Picasso
Curator: Dr. Kerstin Stremmel
24 September, 2011 - 15 January, 2012
Photographs played a major role in conjuring the legend of Picasso’s
dazzling and enigmatic personality. The face of the monumental artist is
almost more familiar than his oeuvre. Yet despite the profusion of
published photographs, the tension between Picasso’s desire to control
his self-representation and the ideas and ambitions of the photographers
themselves—many of whom were famous—has not heretofore been explored.
This exhibition thus inquires for the first time into Picasso’s own role
in the conception of these images: How effective were the strategies
used by an artist who made a public display his women and his work, his
charades and political viewpoints, and who selectively exploited his
private life to create a cult of personality? Did the photographers
manage to assert their own pictorial language and style against the
dominating presence of their subject, and to what extent?
Alongside famous iconic images, the show also holds in store some
surprising and never-before-published photographs of the artist. Any
claim to completeness would however be both tedious and impossible; what
is important instead is to address the various types of photographers
and themes. These range from classic portraits of the artist in his
studio to intriguing views of rooms and works from which, for example in
the series by Brassaï, a precise overall picture can be formed; from
snapshots on the beach to the staging of the artist’s political
engagement. Who was able to maintain their independence in the face of
Picasso’s need for self-fictionalization, and are some of the
photographs interesting even apart from the identity of their subject?
Alongside famous iconic images, the show also holds in store some
surprising and never-before-published photographs of the artist. Any
claim to completeness would however be both tedious and impossible; what
is important instead is to address the various types of photographers
and themes. These range from classic portraits of the artist in his
studio to intriguing views of rooms and works from which, for example in
the series by Brassaï, a precise overall picture can be formed; from
snapshots on the beach to the staging of the artist’s political
engagement. Who was able to maintain their independence in the face of
Picasso’s need for self-fictionalization, and are some of the
photographs interesting even apart from the identity of their subject?
www.museum-ludwig.de
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