Picasso sees the Light

Renowned LIFE photographer Gjon Mili, a technical genius and lighting innovator extraordinaire, visited Pablo Picasso in the South of France in 1949. 

Mili showed the artist some of his photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights affixed to their skates, jumping in the dark -- and Picasso's lively mind began to race.

This series of photographs, since known as Picasso's "light drawings," were made with a small flashlight or "light pencil" in a dark room; the images vanished almost as soon as they were created. However, while the "Picasso draws a centaur in the air" photo is rightly celebrated and famous, many of the images in this gallery are far less well-known -- and equally thrilling.

via Life Magazine

pictures by Gjon Mili for Life Magazine

Picasso's Studio, Paris 1936-1955

Picasso's studio, Rue des Grand Augustins, Paris

Picasso moved into a new studio in the attic of 7, rue des Grands-Augustins, which Dora Maar found for him in early 1937. 

Originally part of a grand 17th-century mansion, it had an intriguing history that appealed to Picasso's sense of irony, particularly as he was painting Guernica. The studio was said to be the setting for 'The Unknown Masterpiece', a short story written in 1837 by the famous French author, Honoré de Balzac. It describes an obsession by the painter, Frenhofer, the greatest painter of his time, to represent the absolute on his canvas, a process that takes years for his creative powers to complete. When the picture, which becomes less and less recognizable as time goes on, is ridiculed by his artist friends as the work of a madman, he destroys the work and dies. The story resonated with Picasso who, like Frenhofer, also locked himself away in the same studio to create a masterpiece, although in his case it was recognized as such.

In 1929, Pablo Picasso, who has a passion to "Unknown Masterpiece", illustrates the story by Balzac in the decorating of eleven etchings. Seven years later, Picasso moves to Grenier des Grands-Augustins.
In his wonderful book "Conversations with Picasso", published by Gallimard, Brassaï, this great photographer rated "living eye" by Henry Miller described the new home of Picasso.
"In this very old part of Paris, the street is named after a former convent razed in 1791 and whose lands extended to the  rue Nevers,  rue Guénégaud and rue Christine where Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas still live.  The small mansion at the corner of the street and the Quai des Grands Augustins, occupied by the restaurant La Perouse since the fifteenth century. I already knew the seventeenth century patrician home of the No. 7 and the two upper floors became Picasso's studio...."
Balzac's description of this house, the stairs steep and dark, is in fact a rather striking resemblance. Moved and stimulated the idea of taking the place of the illustrious shadow of Frenhofer, Picasso once praised the workshop. That was in 1937.

 Paris 1944, 7 Rue des Grands Augustins, Paris 6eme. 

Pablo Picasso in his sudio with his Afghan dog called Kazbeck.

Artist and his Model ~ Picasso and Bardot

You should go! Pablo Picasso: Mosqueteros at Gagosian Gallery

Mindblowing Exhibition. We all have seen many Picasso Paintings and a little boredom might have set in, but this one is a great refresher. Amazingly curated.

'I enjoy myself to no end inventing these stories. I spend hour after hour while I draw, observing my creatures and thinking about the mad things they're up to.'
--Pablo Picasso, 1968


PABLO PICASSO
Femme Nue avec Tête d'Homme, 1967
Oil on canvas


PABLO PICASSO
Tête d'homme du 17ème siècle de face, 1967
Oil on canvas



PABLO PICASSO: Mosqueteros
Installation view


At Gagosian Gallery
Pablo Picasso
'Mosqueteros'
March 26 - June 6, 2009
522 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel 212.741.1717 Fax 212.741.0006
Mon-Sat 10-6

Pictures courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

The Artist and his Studio. Picasso. 20th Century

Years ago I found an old french magazine from the 60's in Paris that had the first picture of this blog on it.
I never forgot it.
Picasso looks so... well, like Picasso.
That got me thinking that I really wanted to use it on my blog, it was today or never.
Interesting how everything is commercialised these days, check out the post above this one.
I recently received the new J.Crew Catalog in the mail and my friend Alex Katz (who has been painting me on and off for the past 2 years and we have had a lot of fun because he likes to chat while he paints because he doesn't want the models to turn into statues) is on the cover and has several pages in the men's section.
And then the Costume Institute Metropolitan Museum is having an Exhibition coming up: The Model as Muse; embodying fashion.
Can't wait to see that one!









Paloma, Claude, Picasso, La Californie, Cannes (1957)
Images courtesy of de Pury & Luxembourg, Geneva




THE STUDIO AT 'LA CALIFORNIE', Pablo Picasso, March 30, 1956
© 2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York





Pablo Picasso in the studio with Brigitte Bardot, 1958