Picasso’s Sculpture

[fusion_text]Picasso’s paintings reimagine reality in wholly original ways, turning three-dimensional objects into convincing two dimensions. His sculptures then take those wholly original two dimensions and turn them back into 3D, a 3D no longer tethered to any recognizable reality. This trick is not all: every few years he creates in a new material: plaster, bronze, wood, steel, paper, ceramic. There were enough distinct styles in the Picasso retrospective at MoMA to have represented the careers of nine or so important artists.

I liked some more than others, which is par for my appreciation of Picasso. The absinthe glasses were pretty ugly; the wire constructions (pre-Giacomettis) were gorgeous. The bulbous heads with phallic noses I could do without; the incised pebbles were charming. Picasso’s ceramics, overly familiar, are not my thing; his sheet metal sculptures, all new to me, were a revelation. One thing this chronological presentation made clear was the degree to which Picasso’s sense of humor took over his art as the years went on. His assemblages, such as Baboon and Young (1951), a crowd favorite at the MIA, Bull’s Head (1942) and, my favorite discovery, Bird (1958: painted wood and forks, plaster, nails, screws and eyebolts) were beyond clever.

In all, one is overwhelmed by the sheer fecundity of Picasso’s creativity. In 63 years of output he never repeats himself. I didn’t like everything, but I wouldn’t have edited out any of the 141 works on view: unlike Sargent’s portraits (see below), they all said something different. This was a remarkable show: it told you everything you needed to know about Picasso as a sculptor and an awful lot about art in the first half of the 20th century.[/fusion_text]

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