Picasso's Nude Woman in Front of a Statue As a Thematic Roadmap To

Reconcilable Differences: Picasso’s Nude Woman in Front of a Statue as a Thematic Roadmap to the Suite Vollard Clara Nuckols AR 471 December 19, 2016 2 I paint the way some people write their autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages of my journal, and as such they are valid. The future will choose the pages it prefers. It’s not up to me to make the choice. Pablo Picasso (qtd. in Coppel 25) Created at the beginning of Picasso’s Suite Vollard, Nude Woman in Front of a Statue is a template of sorts encapsulating the nature of the entire Suite with its inconsistencies, contrasts between darkness and light, and raw beauty (fig. 1). Two women, “muse and sculpture,” are presented as an homage to the central theme of the project—the power of creation in art and love. This visual contrast is striking and intriguing, for one wonders why are the two women presented in this way? Who are they and why is there such a distinction? These questions are invited by this early print and remain to be explored as Picasso creates more conflicting, yet complementary, works that play with these juxtapositions: the artist and the model, love and art, lightness and darkness. This print’s complexity defies any precise definition, but can be understood through its relationship with the other prints and the life and character of the artist, in particular his relationship with his mistress, Marie-Thérèse, and his obsession with neoclassicism. A female figure, standing in contrapposto on the left, evokes ancient sculpture. Her body is graceful and supple, but strong. Cross-hatching darkens her face while also highlights her body. Across from her, another nude woman sits, her back curved and body leaning toward the center of the composition. Fine lines define her hair, facial features, and chest. These delicate strokes contrast with the dramatic cross-hatching on the other figure. Although one of Picasso’s simpler prints, without a story or complicated 3 composition, Nude Woman in front of a Statue is nevertheless complex. Created in the early years of Picasso’s work on the set, its importance lies in its relation to the other prints of the Suite. Picasso completed the last of the Suite Vollard’s one hundred prints in 1937. Named after Picasso’s patron and dealer, Ambroise Vollard who commissioned the project, and yet there is no record of payment, for it was supposedly funded by an exchange of paintings. The intention of the prints as a series is also unclear, and complicated by Vollard’s death in an automobile accident before the ensemble could be released for sale. Vollard’s sudden death put the project on hold, and the prints collected dust in the dealer’s storeroom and thus remained ignored by scholars. The heterogeneous nature of the prints challenges the notion of their forming a true set, and scholars and viewers alike struggle to make sense of their diversity in content and style. The series covers a broad range of subjects, from the classical imagery of sculptures and Greek gods to violent creatures and scenes of lovemaking. Their experimental nature is also perplexing, with Picasso using a range of processes, such as etching, drypoint, and sugar- lift aquatint. Further inconsistencies appear in the prints’ style and content, suggesting that Picasso originally did not intend to have an unfolding narrative or ordered sequence within the one hundred prints. It was not until 1956 that the art historian Hans Bolliger published the prints and organized them in thematic sections: “The Battle of Love,” “The Sculptor’s Studio,” “Rembrandt,” “The Minotaur,” and “The Blind Minotaur.” The remaining twenty-seven prints were labeled “Miscellaneous,” and include Nude Woman 4 in front of a Statue and three portraits of Vollard. These “extraneous” works are puzzling, and challenge Bolliger’s thematic grouping. Bolliger conceded that “[a]t first sight the variety of themes treated might suggest incoherence. However, when the sheets are exhibited together, one is struck by the unity of underlying implication and tone” (qtd. in Florman 71). Bolliger’s comment on the prints cohesion is valid, yet his decision to divide the works in sections does little to support one’s understanding of the prints as a whole. Considering Nude Woman in Front of Statue as a starting point for the Suite Vollard, while keeping in mind Bolliger’s order, helps our interpretation and understanding of the other works. The decision not to place it in one of his thematic sections says something about the striking nature of Picasso’s work—its complexity, its fluidity and cohesive nature. For Daniel Robbins, the prints in the Suite Vollard “are all related, not directly as by theme, or as they were illustrations (many, undoubtedly were rejected as illustrations), but by the thread of Picasso’s personality.” Nude Woman in Front of a Statue does just this, and defies Bolliger’s categories. It stands alone, revealing Picasso’s personality, and creative and sensual powers that dominate the entire Suite. The subject matter fits into the theme of the Sculptor’s Studio, which is composed of forty-six etchings and makes up the largest sub-section of the Suite Vollard. Hans Bolliger admitted that “[a]mong the twenty-seven sheets that are not included in any of the cycles, there are a few that could easily be connected with one of the main themes. And in their subject matter, sheets 6 and 7 are closely related to the Sculptor cycle” (Bolliger xiii). The works, including print number six, Nude Woman in Front of a Statue, capture the relationship between artist and model, artwork and muse in a classical context, referencing antiquity with the ivy garlands, classical busts, and wreathed pedestals, 5 creating a space of Apollonian harmony. Soft and lucid lines define the figures and evoke neoclassical styles to create peaceful, idealized images. The print, Sculptor and his Model before a Window (fig. 2), is a representation of this classical imagery and illustrates the traditional process of the artist looking at the model and creating his masterpiece. A sculptural female figure stands in the left side of the composition, her body in profile and facing the male artist, who is focused on her, while his hand simultaneously grazes a small sculpture in front of him. The relationship between artist and model is presented to the viewer. The contrast in the surface treatment, the model covered in dark, harsh cross-hatchings and the artist and sculpture defined by clear lines, draws the viewer to the scene being depicted. The black cross-hatchings on the face of the figure on the left diverts our eyes, like the artist, to the woman’s sumptuous physique. The style and content of the print are similar to that of Nude Woman in front of a Sculpture, which introduces the theme of the relationship between model, sculpture, and artist through a simpler composition. The central focus on the representation of the women and classical motifs draws our attention to this subject and sets the stage for later prints, connecting the depiction to the artist’s life in the early 1930s. The image is autobiographical: the Grecian-like model correlates with Picasso’s renewed interest in classicism, sculpture, and new love affair with his young muse and mistress, Marie- Thérèse. The juxtaposition of the figures, in style and content, also expose the personality of the artist and his signature artistic style. 6 The quotation of classical sculpture (fig. 3) traces back to the artist’s “classical period” of the teens and twenties. At a young age in art schools, Picasso was surrounded by plaster casts of Ancient Greek and Roman statues, and practiced copying these masterpieces. Picasso retained memories of these early studies, which he evoked sporadically in the 1920s, in stark contrast to his cubist works. His drypoint from 1921, Three Women at the Fountain (fig. 4), is an example of his retreat into classical style, with the reference to ancient sculpture and emphasis on voluptuously modeled bodies. The three female figures make up the entire composition, and the focus is drawn to their bodies and their interactions. The round and full figures, with draped clothing, are sculptural and evoke the bodies of classical sculptures. The amphorae that two of them hold are also reminders of Greco-Roman tradition. Picasso’s retreat into a classical style, as in Three Woman at the Fountain, when considered in relation to his cubist works of the same period, is revealing of the artist’s stylistic exploration. Studies (fig. 5) is painting from 1920 that combines six miniature still lifes with four studies of classical figures. Picasso’s bringing classical style into his cubist experimentation reflects his artistic belief that for his creative process, the art of the past is fully relevant to the art of the present. Picasso defended his resorting to different stylistic choices when he declared in 1923 that “[w]henever I have had something to say, I have said it in a manner in which I felt it ought to be said. Different motives inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply either evolution or progress, but an adaptation of the idea one wants to express and the means to express that idea” (qtd. in Florman 5). 7 While classicism is present in his early works, it also plays an essential role in the Suite Vollard—as throughout his oeuvre. For John Ferguson Picasso, “kept throughout his life the sense of form and outline, a love of beauty which, however sensual it becomes in his hands, retains a certain aloofness, and this balance for which the Greeks were always striving and which keeps Picasso from the excess in which others of his lesser contemporaries indulged” (Ferguson 183).

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