What The New Picasso Trove Could Mean

Picasso haul: analysis

Whether they had been found in an attic in Pinner or in a bank vault in Switzerland, the discovery of 271 unknown works by Pablo Picasso would count as one of the most important cultural events of the year.

 

But to learn that the collection contains a watercolour from Picasso’s blue period, portraits of his first wife Olga, and no less than nine paintings from the cubist period beggars belief.

That’s because the work of few artists in history has been as documented, photographed, described and catalogued as relentlessly as Picasso’s. In 1932, for example, Christian Zervos published the first volume of his monumental 33 volume catalogue raisonee of Picasso’s work, while his biographer John Richardson is at work on the fourth volume of his life.

As for their worth, even a napkin on which the great man doodled could be worth tens of thousands of pounds but highly finished pictures from the cubist period are so rare that the estimate quoted in Liberation of 40 million euros for all nine would be far too low.

But before we all get too excited, a word of caution: though I have only seen images of three works in the collection, none looked to be of exceptional importance.

One was clearly a painted fragment or study of a hand, and the others unfinished cubist collages. If they are indeed entirely by Picasso (and this story will only going to get interesting when their authenticity is confirmed) none of the works I’ve seen will end up in a museum.

But then, Picasso’s life is intimately intertwined with his work in a way that is true of few other artists.

In his relationship with women, for example, his pictures reflect his changing feelings, from the joy of sensual discovery at the beginning to the cruel dismissal at the end.

Art historians and biographers will therefore be anxious to mine those portraits and notebooks for what they may be able to tell us about his love for Fernande, his hatred of Olga, his passion for Marie Therese, fury with Francoise and devotion to Jacqueline.

This article is from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8168502/Picasso-haul-analysis.html

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'Museum of Broken Relationships' Opens in Zagreb

The Croatian capital is home to an unusual new museum



IF IT is the shards of ancient Greek pots or oodles of romantically bulging female flesh that interest you then head around the corner to Zagreb’s venerable Klovicevi Dvori gallery. The most exciting addition to the Croatian capital’s cultural scene offers something different, and is a break with tradition. It is a collection of items that everyone can actually identify with. They are housed in the Museum of Broken Relationships, whose entire collection is made up of objects remaining in the wake of failed relationships, or in some cases, after death.

The museum is the brainchild of two artists, Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic. They went out together between 1999 and 2003, and when they broke up they did not know what to do with all sorts of treasured items that meant something only to them, for example their wind-up, hopping bunny, which they had wanted to take pictures of around the world. The only solution? “We should set up a museum,” they laughed.

Three years later Mr Grubisic called Ms Vistica. He said: “You know that idea we had…?” So, the pair set to asking their friends to donate objects that had been left behind after break-ups. To their surprise, they did. The first exhibition opened in a container. Since then the idea has taken off. Lugging everything from garter belts to garden gnomes around in suitcases they have taken their ever- expanding collection all over the world. Last month they opened the museum’s first permanent gallery, in Zagreb’s old town.

If they were just showcasing old boots, airsickness bags and fluffy toys then the collection would amount to nothing more than meaningless bric-a-brac. But the sometimes heart-rending tales or even just simple sentences accompanying each item bring it all to life. For example, alongside a French identity card a Slovene has written: “The only thing left of a great love was citizenship.” One woman, who gave an axe, recounts how she used it to chop her girlfriend’s furniture into tiny pieces when she left her. The ex collected the remains and “the axe was promoted to a therapy instrument.”

From Switzerland someone has donated an unopened packet containing a candy G-string. “He turned out to be as cheap and shabby as his presents.” Among the most moving of all the items, inevitably, are some related to the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia. One is a love letter written by a boy to a girl he met in a convoy of vehicles while being evacuated from Sarajevo under siege in 1992. He never got to give it to her but he never forgot her either. Another is a prosthetic foot given by a man who lost his own one during the Croatian war. He fell in love with the social worker who helped him obtain certain things he needed but comments, “the prosthesis endured longer than our love. It was made of sturdier material!”