Με το βλέμμα του καλλιτέχνη

Ο Πικάσο και οι γυναίκες του σε εκατοντάδες φωτογραφίες

H φωτογραφία της πρώτης γυναίκας του Πικάσο, Όλγα Χόχλοβα: Το αρχείο δεν δείχνει μόνο τη μεταβολή των σχέσεων του ζωγράφου, αλλά και τις καλλιτεχνικές του αναζητήσεις

Λονδίνο

Το τεράστιο αρχείο της οικογένειας του Πικάσο αποφάσισε να δώσει στη δημοσιότητα ο εγγονός του, παραδίδοντάς το σε βρετανό βιογράφο του ζωγράφου. Στις εκατοντάδες φωτογραφίες και τα βίντεο που είχε τραβήξει ο ίδιος ο Πάμπλο Πικάσο φαίνεται το πιο προσωπικό βλέμμα του, είτε πρόκειται για τις καθημερινές οικογενειακές στιγμές, για την σπουδή πάνω σε καλλιτεχνικά θέματα ή για το πώς άλλαξε με τα χρόνια ο τρόπος που έβλεπε τις γυναίκες και τις ερωμένες του.

Ο εγγονός του ζωγράφου, ο Μπερνάρ Ρουίς-Πικάσο έδωσε στον βρετανό ιστορικό τέχνης Τζον Ρίτσαρντσον πρόσβαση στο αρχείο της οικογένειας.

«Ήταν εκατοντάδες φωτογραφίες που δεν είχε ξαναδεί κανείς, μία αποκάλυψη που ανοίγει τη ζωή του Πικάσο και την κάνει τρισδιάστατη» είπε ο Ρίτσαρντσον μιλώντας στον Guardian, με την ευκαιρία σχετικής έκθεσης που διοργανώνει.

Το αρχείο δεν δείχνει μόνο τη μεταβολή των προσωπικών σχέσεων του ζωγράφου, αλλά και τις καλλιτεχνικές του αναζητήσεις. Σε αρκετές φωτογραφίες, φαίνεται ένας καθημερινός Πάμπλο που παίζει με τα σκυλιά του, σε άλλες τραβάει τα μέλη της οικογένειάς του -και το στήσιμο δείχνει και το πώς αλλάζει η σχέση του μαζί τους- και σε άλλες φαίνεται καθαρά να τραβά φωτογραφίες εξερευνώντας οπτικές για θέματα που αργότερα θα κάνει πίνακες.

Από τα πιο χαρακτηριστικά παραδείγματα είναι οι φωτογραφίες της πρώτης γυναίκας του Πικάσο, Όλγα Χόχλοβα. Στις αρχικές, θαυμάζει την ομορφιά της και πειραματίζεται με το πώς θα την ζωγραφίζει: Η κεντρική φωτογραφία είναι ίδια με το γνωστότερό της πορτρέτο, διά χειρός του συζύγου της.

Σε μεταγενέστερες φωτογραφίες, αποθεώνεται η γνωστότερη ερωμένη του Πικάσο Ντόρα Μαρ, ή μία πιο γηρασμένη και πικραμένη Χόχλοβα ποζάρει στο φακό με την πόρτα του στούντιο ανοιχτή ώστε να φαίνεται πορτρέτο της άλλης του ερωμένης, Μαρί-Τερέζ Βάλτερ.

«Αυτά δεν τα είχε δει κανείς και ανήκουν στην οικογένεια» είπε ο Ρίτσαρντσον, λέγοντας πως από τις φωτογραφίες «μπορείς να νιώσεις εάν ο Πικάσο αγαπά ή απεχθάνεται αυτό που φωτογραφίζει».

Newsroom ΔΟΛ

The Women of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Most of the art displayed in the Saper Galleries exhibition of original graphics and ceramics revolves around Picasso's relations with his various mistresses and wives, sometimes overlapping, sometimes, private, and sometimes public. It has been said that Picasso changed his companions as often as he changed painting styles. Many of his portraits are of his wives, mistresses and children. Click here for a genealogical picture of these relationships.

Picasso had two wives (Olga and Jacqueline) and four children by three women. I have assembled this summary below to provide you a better understanding of eight of Picasso's major relationships.

If you would like to own an original Picasso consider what we display here. Saper Galleries ships anywhere in the world. We are honored to have been recognized by Decor Magazine in 2007 as the top gallery based on our Picasso exhibition from 2006.

I hope you enjoy this summary I prepared of the women of Pablo Picasso!

~ Roy Saper

Picasso with
Francois, Paloma, andClaude

	1904-1912 Artist model Fernande Olivier (1881-1966) was Picasso's first long term relation and subject of many of Picasso's Rose Period paintings (1905-07). Picasso met her after settling in Paris in 1904. Although Fernande was married, she stayed with Picasso for 7 years. Fernande modeled for other artists between 1900 and 1905 after which she moved in with "the Spanish artist", Picasso, who then prevented her from modeling for others. Fernande's having published selections from the memoirs of her life with Picasso infuriated the artist but eventually, at age 70, Picasso paid the ailing and bedridden Fernande a small pension. The full memoir was not published until 1988, "Loving Picasso". In early 2004 the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. had an exhibition of 60 portraits of Fernande that Picasso painted in a few months of 1909.
	1912-1915 Fernande left Picasso in 1912, months after Picasso took an interest in Marcelle Humbert, known as Eva Gouel (1885-1915). Picasso was devastated by her early death due to tuberculosis or cancer in 1915. Picasso professed his love to Eva by painting "I Love Eva" in some of his paintings. Still, during Eva's sickness Picasso managed a relationship with Gaby Lespinasse. (Picasso's father died in May, 1913 at the time that Eva moved in with him.)
	1917-1927 In 1917 ballerina Olga Khokhlova (1891-1955) met Picasso while the artist was designing the ballet "Parade" in Rome, to be performed by the Ballet Russe. They married in the Russian Orthodox church in Paris in 1918 and lived a life of conflict. She was of high society and enjoyed formal events while Picasso was more bohemian in his interests and pursuits. Their son Paulo (Paul) was born in 1921 (and died in 1975), influencing Picasso's imagery to turn to mother and child themes. Paul's three children are Pablito (1949-1973), Marina (born in 1951), and Bernard (1959). Some of the Picassos in this Saper Galleries exhibition are from Marina and Bernard's personal Picasso collection.
	1927-1936 In 1927 Picasso met Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977), a 17 year old who Picasso then lived with in a flat across the street from his marital home (while still married to Olga). Marie-Thérèse and Picasso had a daughter, Maya (Maria de la Concepcion) on October 5, 1935. (Picasso and Olga later separated although they remained married so Olga would not receive half of Picasso's wealth -- until she died in 1955. ) Picasso's relation with Marie was kept from Olga until Olga was told of Marie's pregnancy. Marie understandably became jealous when Picasso started to fall in love with Dora Maar in 1936, a year after Maya was born. It was Marie-Thérèse who was the inspiration for many of Picasso's famous Vollard Suite etchings. Marie-Thérèse died by hanging herself in 1977, four years after Picasso died. Maya's son, Olivier Widmaier wrote "Picasso: The Real Family Story" about his artist grandfather, in 2004.
	1936-1944 In 1936 54-year old Picasso met Yugoslavian Dora Maar (1907 -1997), the photographer who documented Picasso's painting of Guernica, the 1937 painting of Picasso's depiction of the German's having bombed the Basque city of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. She became Picasso's constant companion and lover from 1936 through April, 1944. Maar went back to painting and exhibited in Paris soon after Picasso left her for Françoise. Picasso referred to Dora as his "private muse". In later years she became a recluse, dying poor and alone.
	1943-1953 In 1943 Picasso (age 62) then kept company with young art student Françoise Gilot (born in 1921). Their two children were Claude (1947) and Paloma (1949) who was named for the dove of peace that Picasso painted in support of the peace movement post World War II. Gilot, frustrated with Picasso's relationships with other woman and his abusive nature left him in 1953. Gilot's book "Life with Picasso" was published 11 years after their separation. In 1970 she married American physician-researcher Jonas Salk (who later died in 1995).
	1951-1953 In 1944 17-year old Genevieve Laporte (born in 1927) interviewed Picasso for a school newspaper. Years later in May,1951 Picasso began an affair with the then-24 year old. The relationship started when Laporte visited the 70-year old Picasso at his studio while he was still living with Françoise Gilot. That summer of 1951 Picasso took Laporte to St Tropez, leaving Françoise behind. After declining Picasso's invitation to move in with him in St. Tropez, she left him in 1953 at the same time that Françoise left the artist. In 1972 she went public with the affair and stored the art that Picasso created of her in a safe. In 2005, at age 79, the poet Laporte auctioned 20 drawings of her that Picasso created during their secret affair. Picasso's time with Laporte has been referred to as Picasso's "tender period".
	1953-1973 Dejected and alone, in 1953 Picasso met Jacqueline Roque (1926 -1986) at the Madoura Pottery where Picasso created his ceramics. In 1961 (when Picasso was 79) she became his second wife. Picasso created more works of art based on Jacqueline than any of his other loves, in one year painting over 70 portraits of her. When Picasso died on April 8, 1973, Jacqueline, who had been with Picasso for 20 years, prevented Picasso's children Claude and Paloma from attending his funeral. Jacqueline died from shooting herself in 1986.