Pratiksha Shome
It is almost difficult to forget that this year is the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s passing thanks to the museum world. There are the fifty or so shows put on by the governments of Spain and France, and then there are unconventional events like “It’s Pablo-matic,” the divisive exhibition co-curated by stand-up comedian Hannah Gadsby at the Brooklyn Museum.
There are Picassos of different quality and worth at Art Basel every year, so it would be redundant to argue that they have received the Picasso memo. However, this year’s fair included a few extra-notable paintings, an interesting installation, and some criticism.
Le peintre et son modèle (1963-64) at Helly Nahmad, a representation of the artist’s second wife Jacqueline Roque, stands out among the eye-catching Picassos on display. According to Artnet, the painting has an asking price of $11 million. Le peintre et son modele dans un paysage (1963), another work by a Jacqueline artist, is on display at Acquavella Galleries.
The most elaborate tribute to Picasso at Art Basel, however, is in the honorary booth of the Fondation Beyeler (dealer Ernst Beyeler was one of the organization’s founders back in 1970), where curator Raphael Bouvier has mounted two masterworks in an extremely unconventional way. The 1910 picture Femme assise dans un fauteuil, from the Cubist era, is comfortably hanging on a wall, but the 1907 painting Femme (Epoque des ‘Demoiselles d’Avignon’) is still in its crate. A hyper-realistic, life-size sculpture of a wall painter by Duane Hanson is placed close by and set up so that it appears as though he is still working on one of the booth’s walls. (The Hanson is on long-term loan from the artist’s estate; the two Picassos are from the Beyeler collection.)
ARTnews spoke with Bouvier at the VIP preview of Art Basel on Tuesday. “We wanted to give an insight into the work in progress behind the creation of an exhibition,” Bouvier said.
Another Picasso-related work at Art Basel that is simple to overlook if you are not paying attention, according to Bouvier, impressed him. A Fashionable Marriage, a 1986 tableau by Zanzibar-born, England-based artist Lubaina Himid, is on display in the Art Unlimited section of the fair. It uses characters from William Hogarth’s famous 18th-century painting Marriage a-la-Mode: The Toilette to make a statement about racism and sexism. Picasso’s famous portrait of Gertrude Stein from 1905, when Picasso was inspired by African masks, and some images from the later bullfighter painting are displayed in the background. On top of these images, Himid collaged the words “CUT OUT THE BULL” from a newspaper headline.
For better or worse, the most well-known artist of the 20th century continues to inspire people 50 years after his passing.
Source: ARTnews
