Pratiksha Shome
The exhibition “It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby,” which debuted today and received unfavourable press in ARTnews and the New York Times, has been defended by the Brooklyn Museum.
More than 100 pieces are included in the exhibition, which Gadsby and senior curators Catherine Morris and Lisa Small of the Brooklyn Museum co-organized. Contemporary pieces by Cecily Brown, Judy Chicago, Renee Cox, Käthe Kollwitz, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Marilyn Minter, Joan Semmel, and Faith Ringgold are displayed beside numerous Picassos.
Before you even walk inside the first exhibit, the Pablo-ms start, according to Alex Greenberger’s article in ARTnews. “Cecily Brown’s Triumph of the Vanities II (2018), a 26-foot-long painting with an orgy of brushy figures set against a fiery background, is located above the exhibition’s loud, red placard on the museum’s ground level. The artwork harkens back to the revelry of Rococo art and the vibrant hues of Eugène Delacroix. Picasso, an artist who Brown has praised, is barely mentioned in it.
Even harsher criticism of the programme came from New York Times critic Jason Farago. The goals are “at GIF level,” he commented, though perhaps that was the point.
Hell Gate’s evaluation by Adlan Jackson made it more precise. Its heading read, “Don’t Go to ‘It’s Pablo-matic.'”
Small shared a picture of herself with Morris and Gadsby on her Instagram account along with the remark, “That feeling when it’s Pablo-Matic gets (male) art critics’ knickers in a twist.” This was in response to the reviews. With the caption “A @nytimes critic got very emotional about our show,” Morris published the photograph to her Instagram stories. She also included a GIF with the phrase “sorry, not sorry.”
Source: ARTnews
