| Pretty Little Flower |
11-30-2004 07:48 PM |
Question.
Often, after dinner parties at his home, it is said that Picasso would have Guernica wheeled out for his guests to admire. At one such party, Picasso was entertaining, among others, a famous artist of the dadaist school. The dadaist, while recognizing the greatness in the impressive work, nonetheless challenged Picasso on his oeuvre in general. "Pablo," he said, "you are a great artist, of this we can be certain. But, so often when I see your work, it evokes in me thoughts and images of other of your works. Indeed, many of your works appear to be nothing more than slight variations on other of your works. By creating art out of the found object, the random, the obscure, I deliberately have avoided being pigeonholed with a defined 'style.'" For example, this artist had a series of works devoted to recaps of common vaudeville-type theatre shows he had found in an obscure journal, the pages of which he removed from the binding and had framed as "art." Picasso, while a fan of the dadaist's work, let forth a resigned sigh and stated, "If you study the subtly-nuanced variations from one work to another, you will see that they do not constrain, but rather liberate." |
