Squaring the circles
Picasso. Immediately you see squiggles and cubes which are supposed to be women sunbathing, or simply bathing. Or Guernica. It's all, so to speak, extremely disassembled.
And what an odd-looking little man Picasso was - so unprepossessing. Yet more than any other artist, he represents the abstract. While Dali marketed himself as wickedly sinister, I would not have been surprised to encounter Picasso behind a counter dispensing sausages and fresh tripe.
Which, after that extremely clever introduction, brings me to my point, and that is the Picasso exhibit in the National Museum. It is not often that Varsovians are offered such a treat, although last year there was a foretaste with a rather smaller exhibition in the Grand Theatre. No worries, as the Australians say hundreds of times after breakfast, it didn't steal the show. The National Museum was in no hurry, taking the long view and preparing this sweeping exhibition "Pablo Picasso: Transformations" for the last five years. And it shows.
Some 50,000 visitors have seen the exhibit since it opened in November and the museum expects another 50,000, according to Dariusz Pech, manager of the special exhibitions department.
Visitors find themselves in the midst of school groups dutifully dispatched to the exposition. And yet there was a sense, even at a weekend during the holidays, of not being caught in the crush. Picasso's biography in English along with subtitles and explanations in French, make the event distinctly more accessible as a contrast to the usual monolingualism which is such a lazily prominent feature here. (Those responsible for the permanent displays, which are magnificent, kindly take note).
There are two streams moving within the gallery, which determined the selection of pictures. Picasso's political involvement in the Spanish Civil War and lifelong sympathy with the French Communist Party are pertinently expressed. But there are also numerous side themes, which the master pursued all his life, such as the childlike innocence in expression. Regandless of your taste, his interpretation of the corrida is spine-tingling. My husband who, in antiquity, once made a frightful nuisance of himself over bullfighting while operating in a rather different arena than the one he is in now, grumpily stomped out of the museum after discovering that the shop had run out of copies of the bullfighting scenes.
There is an intriguing Polish connection with Picasso, especially after World War II, during his so-called "communist period." (The Red as opposed to the Blue, one supposes). This has been nicely explained. In 1948, Picasso participated in the "International Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace" in Wrocław, an event illuminated with the photographs from the National Museum collection. Those of us who are actually from Wrocław (Breslau as it was just four years before that grande salle) cannot help but express again how easily intellectuals are enticed by regimes which lack the faintest trace of democratic credentials, once the peace word is flagged. But to continue: There are other links between Poland and Picasso, such as the drawing of a famous Krakovian lajkonik. The artist promised at one point to donate some of his masterpieces to Poland, declaring "take what you want."
Soon afterwards, the Eastern Bloc froze solid behind the iron curtain, and in 1956 the majority of Polish intellectuals were denied visas by our own peace-adoring regime to participate in another great peace-fest in Paris. Of course. What did anyone expect? They weren't going to be silly enough to come back, were they?
I had a sense that perhaps this is an exhibition which needed to happen, like a statement following a series of events. I liked having the opportunity to roam and revisit the pieces that appealed to me, including the ceramics - especially given the current mood of a Poland which stands at the door of a Europe at peace with itself, which I suspect was the driving force for Picasso and his friends. In exchange, we will get the common agricultural policy, which is anything but abstract. Never mind.
Not for the first time, the power of Picasso's draughtsmanship overwhelmed me, And to make the most of the drawings, watch out for a subtle little trick of the organisers. The exhibition is actually divided into two displays, and if you do not want to miss the largest (and most exciting) one, having viewed the hors d'oeuvre, make a sharp right at the Picasso shop, where you will encounter the treasures which compose his later art and enough doves on the peace posters to get the Ark airbone.
The Picasso exhibition runs until February 7 at the National Museum (www.mnw.art.pl), Al. Jerozolimskie 3. Hours: Tues.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
And what an odd-looking little man Picasso was - so unprepossessing. Yet more than any other artist, he represents the abstract. While Dali marketed himself as wickedly sinister, I would not have been surprised to encounter Picasso behind a counter dispensing sausages and fresh tripe.
Which, after that extremely clever introduction, brings me to my point, and that is the Picasso exhibit in the National Museum. It is not often that Varsovians are offered such a treat, although last year there was a foretaste with a rather smaller exhibition in the Grand Theatre. No worries, as the Australians say hundreds of times after breakfast, it didn't steal the show. The National Museum was in no hurry, taking the long view and preparing this sweeping exhibition "Pablo Picasso: Transformations" for the last five years. And it shows.
Some 50,000 visitors have seen the exhibit since it opened in November and the museum expects another 50,000, according to Dariusz Pech, manager of the special exhibitions department.
Visitors find themselves in the midst of school groups dutifully dispatched to the exposition. And yet there was a sense, even at a weekend during the holidays, of not being caught in the crush. Picasso's biography in English along with subtitles and explanations in French, make the event distinctly more accessible as a contrast to the usual monolingualism which is such a lazily prominent feature here. (Those responsible for the permanent displays, which are magnificent, kindly take note).
There are two streams moving within the gallery, which determined the selection of pictures. Picasso's political involvement in the Spanish Civil War and lifelong sympathy with the French Communist Party are pertinently expressed. But there are also numerous side themes, which the master pursued all his life, such as the childlike innocence in expression. Regandless of your taste, his interpretation of the corrida is spine-tingling. My husband who, in antiquity, once made a frightful nuisance of himself over bullfighting while operating in a rather different arena than the one he is in now, grumpily stomped out of the museum after discovering that the shop had run out of copies of the bullfighting scenes.
There is an intriguing Polish connection with Picasso, especially after World War II, during his so-called "communist period." (The Red as opposed to the Blue, one supposes). This has been nicely explained. In 1948, Picasso participated in the "International Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace" in Wrocław, an event illuminated with the photographs from the National Museum collection. Those of us who are actually from Wrocław (Breslau as it was just four years before that grande salle) cannot help but express again how easily intellectuals are enticed by regimes which lack the faintest trace of democratic credentials, once the peace word is flagged. But to continue: There are other links between Poland and Picasso, such as the drawing of a famous Krakovian lajkonik. The artist promised at one point to donate some of his masterpieces to Poland, declaring "take what you want."
Soon afterwards, the Eastern Bloc froze solid behind the iron curtain, and in 1956 the majority of Polish intellectuals were denied visas by our own peace-adoring regime to participate in another great peace-fest in Paris. Of course. What did anyone expect? They weren't going to be silly enough to come back, were they?
I had a sense that perhaps this is an exhibition which needed to happen, like a statement following a series of events. I liked having the opportunity to roam and revisit the pieces that appealed to me, including the ceramics - especially given the current mood of a Poland which stands at the door of a Europe at peace with itself, which I suspect was the driving force for Picasso and his friends. In exchange, we will get the common agricultural policy, which is anything but abstract. Never mind.
Not for the first time, the power of Picasso's draughtsmanship overwhelmed me, And to make the most of the drawings, watch out for a subtle little trick of the organisers. The exhibition is actually divided into two displays, and if you do not want to miss the largest (and most exciting) one, having viewed the hors d'oeuvre, make a sharp right at the Picasso shop, where you will encounter the treasures which compose his later art and enough doves on the peace posters to get the Ark airbone.
The Picasso exhibition runs until February 7 at the National Museum (www.mnw.art.pl), Al. Jerozolimskie 3. Hours: Tues.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
