Siri HustvedtI am fascinated that no one I have read seems to have noticed that the literature on Picasso continually turns grown-up women into girls.
About This Quote
We cannot quote the entire article that starts with “I am fascinated that no one I have read seems to have noticed that the literature on Picasso continually turns grown-up women into girls.”, but one portion of it is very relevant towards understanding this quote. The writer says that most of the books about Picasso are written by men. She goes on to say that “most paintings of Picasso’s women are portraits of girls in their early 20s, framed by their long hair and with full lips, necks and bosoms.” The writer is saying that when we look at the art of Picasso, most of the time it is of female characters in their 20s with full lips, long hair, and with an emphasis on skin, skin, skin. We can see this in many other paintings as well.
What people fail to realize is that this is not an accurate representation of how Picasso painted women in his lifetime. The writer in this article does not seem to understand the impact that Picasso made in his lifetime. He was known for his portraits of women with their arms folded across their chests, with scowling faces, or looking away from the viewer.
This cropped up during the years he was painting Guernica when he was being influenced by Spanish painters including El Greco whose works were dripping in religious symbolism. Picasso changed so much over his lifetime and yet people do not seem to realize it until they read your quote. To me this shows how people do not understand art or its true meaning until it has been explained to them by someone else who understands what they are talking about more than you do. It also shows how people can be completely blinded by their views on certain things, like art or religion (see religious wars), until someone comes along and explains it differently than you thought about it originally.
Source: A Woman Looking At Men Looking At Women: Essays On Art, Sex, And The Mind
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