Picasso: A Painter's Diary (Part 2): From Cubism To Guernica (1981)

[Music] for those who know how to read I have painted my [Music] autobiography he began to discover Iberian art before he discovered the Negro art and it was very important for him because this art was a Spanish art you know the art of his land before the Roman Conquest it was in Iberian art that were distorted faces big eyes big ears [Music] leel deav how that title irritates me you know the original title was the brel of a I lived a few feet from the D but an art collector found it too difficult to bring a brothel into his home so Samone gave it a new name I first thought to put men in the painting there were some in the original drawings then it changed and the painting became what it is now even the most avantgard painters of 197 friends of Picasso like Brock and Duran were shocked at the Liberties which Picasso took in representation in this picture uh the intense saturated colors the extraordinarily distorted figures went far beyond anything that had been proposed up until that time the center figures are quite obviously the earliest ones it was what happened to Picasso after his famous visit to the trodo museum where where he saw the African sculptures that changed the nature of this [Music] picture I went to the old Trocadero Museum an awful place I was all alone there I wanted to leave but I didn't I stayed I understood that it was very important to stay all alone in that dismal Museum some of the faces in the demoiselle de must have come to me that very day not because of the shapes of those masks and dolls but because painting was my form of exorcism he starts on the left side by simplifying the shapes of the body and goes on to make a mask-like head that is very reminiscent of certain African masks he moves on to the two figures on the extreme right here he repaints the bodies and especially the heads in the form of African sculpture with extraordinarily intense saturated colors Shu keing said what a loss for French art Brock's first reaction was it's as if you wanted to make us eat rope and drink gasoline my girlfriends used to tell all the ugly models in Paris to go pose for Picasso it is a picture to which every painter of the early 20th century owed a great debt whether they were influenced in an immedate sense or not when he began to to paint he has used paintings of cesan for the the the construction the composition of his painting cesan he was our father everyone must have a father it was he who protected us for IM was the biggest Discovery he find in cesan exact what he was searching he searched the way to give his paintings a great force something like what we call architecture on one point there was negro art and the other point there was sesan and he mared both searching in both art the construction you know [Music] Amigos we are here in orta my address isince of taragona near Gandesa bada Antonio alter Vista Pico dear Alice and Gertrude life in horta is a little monotonous Pablo works all the time they've given him a room to work at the Bakers he calls it his Studio the room is empty and he can work in peace forgive me for not having written sooner but I haven't been feeling [Music] well Picasso brought back with him to Paris Landscapes of horta which were extraordinarily realistic and all the same the beginning of cubism he takes some photographs of horta and when everyone protested against the fantasy of the pictures he made them look at the photographs I paint what I see I have seen and felt differently maybe at different times in my life but I have never painted anything but what I've seen or what I have felt I've been working in Spain barock in the south of France at lak and we were both amazed when we returned to Paris to find we were making the same discoveries when we invented cubism we had no intention whatever of inventing cubism we sought to express reality with new and exciting materials which we didn't know how to handle Brock said we were like two mountain climbers roped together we said things to each other that no one else had said before or since that no one else could understand at one point only we could tell tell our paintings apart do you think it concerns me that a particular picture of mine represents a particular person vard for example the vision of him gave me a preliminary emotion then little by little his actual presence becomes blurred he is no longer vard you see but forms and colors forms and colors that have taken on the idea of olard and preserve the vibration of his life all good portraits are to some degree caricatures the cubis found a picture dealer the young coniler coming from London full of enthusiasm definitely becoming interested in Picasso who after that could work in continuing Security in 1909 we moved from our old B lavoir to 11 Boulevard deichi near plas pigal the moving men were amazed at the difference between the two places you people must have won the lottery one of them said now our meals were served by a maid in a white apron Picasso used to buy things on his walks stuff which cluttered up the apartment old tapestries musical instruments African carvings and African masks there was a competition between Picasso and matis as to who who could discover the most beautiful African heads Picasso worked in a large Airy Studio which no one was allowed to enter without his permission the chaos had to be treated with respect he was always afraid the dust would get on his wet canvases so the studio was never cleaned the Earth doesn't have a cleaning woman to dust it off its dust has saved everything that's come down to us from the past I've always forbidden anyone to dust my Studios not because I was afraid they'd disturb my things but because I've always counted on the protection of the Dust when Picasso began his way toward cubism Fernand he has not understood what he was doing I think it was the beginning of the clash between Fernand and him dear Gertrude and Alice Pablo and I have been quarreling again this time our separation may be for good for now Beauty held me but I couldn't stand any of her little ways Picasso was at work on a picture in which was written maroli I said to Alice Fernand is certainly not maroli I wonder who it is in a few days we knew Pablo had gone off with Ava Ava so small so perfect I love Ava and I write WR her name in my pictures I call her [Music] maoli Eva understood what Picasso was trying to do the beginning of the love with Eva is the period of the biggest uh and boldest achievements of Picaso in the great period of cubism 1912 his first collage the first [Music] Papi at the time everyone asked how much reality there actually was in cubism there is no abstract art you must always start with something afterward you can remove all traces of reality the object will have left its indelible mark it is what started the artist off excited his ideas and stirred up his emotions but the reality in cubism is not a reality you can take in your hand it's more like a perfume in front of you behind you to the sides the scent is everywhere but you don't quite know where it comes from the man bent over his guitar a shearsman of sorts the day was green they said you you have a blue guitar you do not play things as they are the man replied things as they are are changed upon the blue guitar and they said then but play you must a tune Beyond us yet ourselves a tune upon the blue guitar of things exactly as they are every time when he came to obstructions he uh stopped because he was afraid to paint uh decorative paintings you know there was something that pushed him toward abstraction many times in his life but after he turned back to the reality he could not cut the link between his painting and what he saw what he feel he could not get it and he was afraid to get it [Music] then there was the war and all his friends left to go to the war Brock and Duran were mobilized Picasso being Spanish did not go to the [Applause] war I said goodbye to BR and Iran in the station at a and I never really found them again December 9th 1915 my dear gude Ava has been continually sick and grows worse each day it's the end I think I go to the sanatorium every day I spend half my time in the [Music] Metro even so I have done a painting of a harlequin so you see as always I do not stop January 8th 1916 my dear C Tru my poor Ava is dead it has been a great sorrow for me she was always so good to me I know that you will miss her [Music] too then little by little Picasso commenced to know Jean cako and the result was that cubism was to be put on the stage for me Picasso is the most sacred of all sacred monsters he took me to the cafes introduced me to the painters and Poets it was in the middle of the street between the cafe Lon and the cafe Dome that I asked Picasso to do the sets and costumes for the ballet parad Picasso scandalized the cafe Lon in accepting my invitation to paint a stage set for a Russian ballet was a crime after all cubism is not a religion diagf carried us off Picasso Sati and me an enormous pink rhinoceros taking us to Rome on his back there we were met by mine who was to do the choreography this was Picasso's entrance into a world that was new to him he attached himself to a ballerina Olga Cova a Russian General's daughter Olga is a really pure young girl she has that classic Beauty and PE skin that has always attracted [Music] me on a table looking out toward the Villa medich Picasso painted costumes for the Chinese conjurer the American Girl the horse the blue acrobats and the managers the managers were pure [Music] Cubist parad brought together Picasso's first stage Decor Eric sati's first orchestral score mine's first Cubist choreography and my first attempt to express myself without words parad was really the beginning of the general recognition of Picasso's work on June the 12th 1918 Picasso married Olga Max jaob appolinaire and I were Witnesses in November two days before the Armistice a poire died of influenza Picasso heard about it when while shaving in front of a mirror struck by his own expression he made a self-portrait his Farewell to [Music] Gom the picassos rented an apartment in the rud La boy SE among the picture [Music] galleries this is also there were five or six rooms nobody was allowed to clean his Studio it was full of dust and cigarette butts Olga lived downstairs and there it was really very Bourgeois they entertained there and even Picasso's pictures were framed in large gold frames Picasso had a worldly side Olga was a general's daughter and Picasso like that very much [Music] he adored his son and spoiled him his name was Paulo there are many many pictures of [Music] Paulo Pico lived in Paris and I lived in Barcelona I went to see Picasso's mother I told her Madame I'm leaving for Paris is there something you would like me to bring your son she said oh yes and she gave me a large box with an Tim a delicious cake from mayor in the shape of a spiral I brought it to Picaso timidly the in had completely dried out but Pico said to me it's better for dunking in my chocolate the next year I went to see Picasso again he told me I would like to see your work certainly it is a great honor for me he came to my miserable Hotel on the P he said what you doing is pure poetry this has stayen my memory he sent the dealers to me nobody was interested in my work but he always encouraged me what he gave us was a summing up profound and cruel of the entire history of painting he opened all doors for us after this we had a sense of freedom there we breathe the open air in 1932 the great event of the Paris season was the Picasso retrospective the prodal children returning home clothed in Gold the multiplicity of styles in Picasso's art gave rise especially during his lifetime to criticisms that he was a charlatan or he didn't really have conviction about his style and so forth because he changed so often I don't think any other painter in a lifetime has worked in as many styles as Picasso now at the beginning these Styles follow one another uh in time but by the latter part of Picasso's career these Styles exist simultaneously is a kind of vocabulary on which he can draw at any given moment and each style has a character of its own and if one could say well there isn't the same kind of unity in Picasso's work because of all these styles that one has in the work of some other artist nevertheless there is a Unity it's a unity in variety that is to say every one of these Styles issues from Picasso's psyche and his guts and so they're all unified by the idea that they are stamped Picasso style is something which locks the painter into to the same vision the same technique the same formula for years and years repetition is contrary to the laws of the spirit to its flight forward I'm never fixed that's why I have no style down with style does God have a style he made the guitar the Harlequin the dox hunt the cat the owl the dove so do I Picasso had arrived he and Olga lived as part of the fashionable [Music] world he had all of the exterior symbols of success Pico enjoyed this life for a while but not for long this is one of the reasons why he and his wife grew apart car Maids chauffeurs governesses a demon gave me these things wealth disgusts me I thank God for having given me poverty for part of my life I was amazed before me was a face and form that I had painted many times years before I ever saw Marie [Music] terz Mares represents the curved line and the Triumph of color it's a moment of Happiness richness of color and fullness of form [Music] the influence of women is seen almost immediately in Picasso's work I think he was aware of it and that he did it as a kind of homage to the new woman in his life it's as if for the new woman he didn't want the sheets of his former bed and so he didn't want to use the same style he offered the new woman a new style he created for her a new world extraordinary I don't think there's another artist in the world who could have done this he invented he created a style for a woman Picasso's minur has to be understood as Picasso's search into himself and Picasso's sense of himself self as a tremendously libidinous energetic figure Picasso's interest in the 30s in the minor who's a kind of combination of man and bull a human figure with a uh bull or bison head related Picasso very closely in the late 20s and the 30s to the surrealists we see him as alternately a monstrous figure but also a tragic figure because the tragedy is the absence of any kind of order or control over this immense power through the minor he says things that he couldn't say directly it's the time when Mari terz gave birth to Maya there is a picture which shows the Minotaur moving his home that's a painting in a frame which he won't leave behind the horse is having a baby do you see the tiny head and the the little red feet do you see the child July 13th 1935 my dear friend saes I am all alone in the house the interminable wrangling with lawyers has exhausted me Olga refuses a divorce my health has suffered this is the worst time in my life I have not painted for months [Music] he was separated from his wife Olga and he didn't want to stay alone in his apartment ca he started to go to cafes with sabes and his dog and he saw friends nearly every evening he ate at the brass lip it was at that time that eloir introduced him to a talented photographer Dora Mar dorar spoke fluently Spanish that was very important because it was the time of the Spanish war andar was politically engaged against fascism he was very pleased with her because she was clever quite the contrary of Mari terz you know Mari teres was a private life and secy Damar was the public life and a woman with political [Music] ideas the democratically elected Republic of Spain has been attacked by rebellious military forces under General Francisco Franco with military support from Hitler and musolini [Music] [Music] [Music] gika the oldest town of the Bas and the center of their tradition and culture was totally destroyed yesterday afternoon by air Raiders a powerful Fleet of german-made airplanes unloaded bombs and incendiary projectiles on the town while Fighters plunged low to machine gun those civilians who had taken refuge in the fields [Music] the Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people against freedom in the panel on which I am working which I shall call gernika and in all my recent works I clearly express my abhorrence of the military cast which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death [Applause] [Music] w [Music] painting is not done to decorate Apartments it is an instrument of War for attack and defense against the enemy a good painting any painting ought to bristle with razor blades [Music] at the time that I did g it was a great catastrophe the first of many which we all went [Music] through it's a diary that one writes for oneself he came from here and he needed a studio and and basically because he had run out of room you know in the other place he had no more space to paint in and and and here upstairs was a big big room where he could do large things larger things so he got this place which was very a simple place and uh he he worked and he was happy happy working here he lived here for about a bit more than 15 years until he went to live in the south of France this is also where gica was painted the painting could just fit between the floor and the ceiling and when we came to Paris we stayed here so I I lived here [Music] oh he [Music]