Reflections on an Exhibition

Exhibition: The Picasso Century

Where: The National Gallery Victoria

Until: 9 October

Tickets: $30 (plus a fiver if you want the audio tour)

There are too many people and nobody is wearing a mask. This was my first thought as I wandered into the Picasso Exhibition. There's too many people and I've still not had COVID and I'm itching to get my fourth dose of vaccine as the one I had in January has probably worn off and I really don't want to get it (or get it badly).

There are too many people and I want to have this exhibition to myself. This was my second thought. But as this is Melbourne and we're starved for culture at the best of times and it is the middle of the school holidays, it serves me right for coming along to this. Nevertheless, I persisted through this most excellent exhibition, gritting my teeth at the pusher-inners, the noisy kids and those who have to photograph EVERYTHING while never stopping to take anything in.</rant>

Of course, I'm taking myself back to the time I was in the Picasso Museum in Malaga - when I finally got Picasso. Finally. It look a retrospective of all of his work for me to 'get' him. I got to the museam, the house in which he was born, later in the afternoon. The place was half empty and because of this, I could consider the paintings in my own time, alone, quietly, considering the works individually, and as a whole.

Instead, I'm wheedled and jostled as the great, maskless unwashed push in front of you to take that picture, before moving on. This isn't an exhibition to do quickly. There's almost too much here. Also, it probably should be called Picasso and Friends, as it's not just Piccasso's works on display. Miro, Dali, Dora Maar, Matisse, Georges Breton are just a few of the artist displaying against a backdrop of the major events of the last century.

The exhibition looks at his early days in Paris, specifically his time in Montmartre. The then ambles into cubism, surrealism, his views on World War II and his later years, juxtaposing his works, including sketches, sculptures, paintings and ceramics, intermingling these with some short videos on his life and his influence on various schools. I liked the video presentations. Gave me a chance to have a bit of a sit and a ponder.

Being on my own today, I downloaded the audio tour on my phone and received a lot of information through the curator of the exhibition which greatly added to the experience.

What got to me most was Picasso's ability to adapt, his quick wit and sly humour. A story around his master work, Guernica was related. It goes like this. (Thanks to openculture.com)

"History remembers Pablo Picasso first as an innovative painter, and second as an uninhibited personality. The latter especially generated many an anecdote in his long life, some surely apocryphal but most probably true. A short Guardian editorial on one of his most famous canvases begins with the story of when, “in occupied Paris, a Gestapo officer who had barged his way into Picasso’s apartment pointed at a photo of the mural, Guernica, asking: ‘Did you do that?’ ‘No,’ Picasso replied, ‘you did’, his wit fizzing with the anger that animates the piece” — a piece that took no small amount of boldness to paint in the first place."

I love this story. And although Guernica is not displayed here, one of the videos shows it's progress through Dora Maar's photographs. Conservatives often find little place for modern art. (Gawd, I can still remember the stick Gough Whitlam received for buying Jackson Pollack's "Blue Poles" - fucking wowsers).

The icing on the cake for me was a couple of Francis Bacon paintings right near the end of the exhibition. Bacon and I hunt each other out. I love his visceral works. He speaks to me more than Picasso - but it's a personal thing.

And I left, an hour and a half later, peopled out, but happy. It was worth every cent to see - better that I came during the week, getting away from the weekend crowds - but saying this, it's a very popular exhibition. Booking tickets on the rather woeful NGV website is recommended. I'll back track a bit - the NGV website is fine - their booking system is something only the public service could come up with.

So I left to enter the burgeoning twilight on this rainy Melbourne afternoon, and pondered why it is I always feel most at home in these streets when they feel like the streets of Montmartre, where much of this beauty and awe began. And the hankering to return to Europe for a while has been reignited. I want to be around more of this. Here, on the other side of the world, such exhibitions are few and far between.

All of this happened before going off to the theatre to see the MTC's Come Rain or Come Shine. But that is another topic for another post.

Let's just say I'm all cultured out now, and better for the experience.