13 february and the circus —

13 may 2018 Shortly after settling in Paris, the young Pablo Picasso started going regularly to the Cirque Medrano. In the early years of the 20th century, figures of harlequins, acrobats and clowns began to appear in his paintings, representing the humility creative and frugality of these wandering performers’ errant life. However, the circus also signified social protest processes and marginalization in opposition to the new bourgeoisie. These values Traditionally, the first step in the process identified a new generation of artists of creating a conventional painting has and writers in the revolutionary Paris always been the sketch. The photographic of that time. The world of the circus records, notebooks and preparatory mutated across numerous forms and drawings made by Pablo Picasso which Federico Fellini’s biographer, the fellini styles throughout Picasso’s œuvre. have come down to us bear witness film critic Tullio Kezich, describes In films ranging from Variety Lights to the importance the Spanish artist The Book of Dreams as a kind of (1950) to The Clowns (1970), Federico assigned to this preliminary work. diary, novel, comic, storyboard and Fellini’s imaginary was similarly Federico Fellini once said that before anthology of short stories all rolled inhabited by grotesque circus making a film, he spent most of his into one. characters, an influence derived from time at his desk drawing figures, For 30 years, from 1960 to 1990, commedia dell’arte and his own caricatures and sets. These sketches the Italian film director described beginnings as a cartoonist for satirical would later become the starting point and drew his dreams, as instructed magazines. Capturing the feelings of for screenwriters, stage designers, by his Jungian psychoanalyst, Ernst these roving performers allowed him casting directors, costume designers Bernhard. The result was a two- to deceive, surprise and reminisce. and makeup artists. volume compilation of his most Fellini took part in the early stages Teatro 5 at the legendary Cinecittà intimate obsessions, fears, passions of the Italian Neorealism film studios in Rome was the atelier and anxieties. The repertory of forms, feminine movement, whose objective was to where Fellini materialized his dreams motifs and stories it contains makes show the suffering that resulted from and obsessions. In this space, he it possible to relate his fantastical adverse post-war social conditions reconstructed the canals and bridges of movies to his oneiric world. archetypes after Mussolini’s dictatorship. picasso 18th-century Venice, the Piazza Cavour in Rimini, and even the Aegean Sea. There he could control the light for each scene The different roles assigned to and direct his actors freely as if they women by both Pablo Picasso and were models or marionettes. The studio Federico Fellini in their lives is is also intimately linked to Picasso’s mirrored in their respective artistic career. In the case of Les demoiselles and cinematic works. They include d’Avignon and Guernica, the importance pregnant women like ancient of the place where they were painted goddesses who become great mother attains almost mythical proportions. figures; female images, both muses Photography, television and – of course – and models at the same time, with film all occupy their respective places in the capacity to metamorphose into Picasso’s fertile artistic production. something terrible and menacing; and obliging women, objects of

1 desire and adoration. Olga Khokhlova, Françoise Gilot and Dora Maar find imaginary In his dreams, Fellini saw himself correspondences in Giulietta Masina, as a thin young shadow with a full Anita Ekberg and Sandra Milo as head of hair. Over the nearly 400 speculations on the archetypal pages of the book, he meets many representations of love and anger. of the figures who touched on his These figures repeatedly confront life, as well as many others he never and live on the one hand with the had a chance to get to know, and old painter, Raphael, Degas or King a few who never existed at all. In Herod, and on the other with Guido these dreams, he saw Pablo Picasso Anselmi (8 ½), Snàporaz (City of on four different occasions. Women) or Casanova. The evocations of female images by both Latin artists allow us to explore the universe of masculine obsessions.

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antiquity

The Mediterranean Sea, with its Cover: Illustration by Curro González. And Fellini dreamed of Picasso, 2017 historical and mythical imagery, was a recurring element in Pablo 1. Federico Fellini during the shooting of La Dolce Vita,1960 Picasso’s pictorial output. Scenes Collection Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé © 1960. Société Nouvelle Pathé–Cinéma - Gray Film - Riama Film of luminous beaches, their frozen 2. Federico Fellini (1920–1993). Woman with Fairy Hat, 1990 horizons marked with a drawing Cineteca del Comune di Rimini, Fondo Norma Giacchero pen, or pleasant settings with a © Federico Fellini, VEGAP, Madrid, 2018

dreamed background of ancient Roman ruins 3. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Woman in a Red Hat, are the landscapes where fauns, Mougins, 30 May 1965 minotaurs, maenads and other Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte © FABA Foto: Hugard & Vanoverschelde Photography mythological creatures connect 4. Federico Fellini (1920–1993). Fellini’s Casanova: Man in with a diverse identity that is also Period Costume [1974–75?] expressed by the figures invented Cineteca del Comune di Rimini, Fondo Norma Giacchero © Federico Fellini, VEGAP, Madrid, 2018 by Federico Fellini. According to Fellini, in the case 5. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Female Acrobat with Spangled Make-up and Spectators, Mougins, 8 August 1968 of the film Satyricon (1969) these Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte characters and settings were used © FABA Foto: Hugard & Vanoverschelde Photography

by the Italian director to narrate a 6. Pierluigi Praturlon (1924–1999). Fellini’s Casanova, Sponsor story ‘archaeologically’, as if the the Venice Lagoon with the Bier-boat, Rome, 1975 film were an excavated mosaic Gérald Morin Collection © Reporters Associati & Archivi Srl with many of its tesserae missing. 7. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Minotaur on a Boat Saving In his melancholic vision of Roma a Woman, Paris, March 1937 (1972), some Pompeii-style frescoes Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte © FABA Foto: Eric Baudouin are discovered during construction Partners work on the underground, and in 8. Tazio Secchiaroli (1925–1998). Federico Fellini during the shooting of City of Women, Rome, 1979 Amarcord (1973), the old Fellini © Tazio Secchiaroli/David Secchiaroli remembers his Latin lessons in © Federico Fellini, VEGAP, Madrid, 2018 of a grotesque school. © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2018 2 / 3