From Panama, Picasso greets Delacroix

Art can do wonders,,, like faith. Maybe because art is a kind of religion. Definitely a worldly faith, like that of the transcendence of the work of art and the artistic creator, the artist, who thanks to his work can live beyond his time, and every age can discover, rediscover, new value in achievements. of the past. Character dialogues in time. Art is a dialogue, it communicates; but that dialogue and that communication are not simple: they are mediated by codes that often escape us. This is one unfortunate, but still always opens the work to new readings and re-readings.

Artistic questions, challenges; especially to the artists themselves; even more so when these artists are real and truly great creators. Eco has already said that some books talk to others; the same happens with plastic. These reflections are a reflection (in a sea of ​​mirrors) that evokes the contemplation of the two lithographs present in the Picasso exhibition currently on display in Panama, which the man from Malaga made in full maturity, in his intense reading of the great plastic, also the romantic painter, par excellence, Eugene Delacroix . The lithographs in question are part of an extensive series of prints that Picasso made on one of the most emblematic works of his French colleague: “Women from Algeria in their apartment” painted in 1834. For its part, the series Picasso would be called “Les femmes d’Algiers”and his most prominent list is listed as Version “C” to version “O”. Actually, Picasso he painted 15 works on this picture, between 1954 and 1955, along with making some lithographs, like the one we see today in House of Spain in Panama.

This series of variations on referenced work by Delacroix, Picasso He launched it just after the death of his colleague Henri Matisse in November 1954 – another of the great 20th century plastic restorers, a painter with whom Picasso clashed and fraternized until his death. Matisse created a series of significant works thematically similar to those of Delacroix called “Odalisques”, or women of the harem. Matisse’s works are exhibited by women vluxurious and in sluggish positions. For this reason, the man from Malaga came to confirm that, after his death, Matisse left his harem women.

The female characters are related to Picasso’s last companion, Jacqueline, in terms of color and ambience; and the composition evokes that atmosphere of light, spaciousness, colors, which is the artist himself Picasso asked when buying the villa “California” in the vicinity of Cannes, in the south of France. His famous painting “Nude in a rocking chair” is also from that time (around 1955). On the other hand, these women exude erotic power, with their breasts offered like ripe fruits (Sinán dixit), or the roundness of their hips, with the arms of the central figure crossed behind their heads, as an invitation to fight with the thalamus.

Other figures, facing back, show strong buttocks. However, color is the real protagonist of the entire series, and in Picasso’s cubist vision, colors highlight or model details in a game of contrasts. Because paintings and lithographs magnetize the viewer’s gaze which penetrates through its thresholds.

in the box Delacroix from 1834, now in the Louvre, three seated women and a man appear, presumably the guardian of the harem, crowned with a colorful turban. Eugene Delacroix visited North Africa and was enchanted by the Muslim atmosphere and culture. He is said to have exclaimed, “I am like a man in a dream who sees things which he fears will disappear from him.” (Cain, A., 2016) And indeed, the impression of Fr The Algerian journey took a long time, painting 80 complete works on men in colorful turbans, harems, Muslim house interiors and Jewish weddings. The most famous painting in the series is the one from 1834, but there is another one created between 1847 and 1549.

in operation Picasso also has three characters female, as the main one, the one who takes the place to the left of the viewer.