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Mani Deli
In his "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" (1906), Picasso presented a mild
hint at what would soon follow. Here we still have a very conventional
portrait. The face and hands are solid although the rest is far less
finished. The placement and composition are utterly conventional, yet
the face already reveals a suggestion of Picassoid transformation.
The eyes and part of the mouth are like decals that have been
transferred to a solid head which looks like it was sculpted in rough,
carelessly tinted plaster. The wig looks like a mud flap that is
beginning to slide down the face along the side of a flat pancake ear.
Unable to realistically separate the background and the cheek, Picasso
drew a brown line around it. The face is still bearable and we are by
now supposed to be used to these sorts of errors and no longer
recognize them as such.
In order to get the best overview of the rest of this painting, cover
the face with a scrap of paper torn to fit over it and look at the
remainder of the picture. Note the definite schmutz tendencies and
that "brown sauce" effect which is a term accusingly used to point out
a characteristic of academic monotony. The solidity of the head and
hands give way to a body which is little more than an amorphous brown
blob. Under a little scrutiny the background deteriorates into a lot
of dry brown crudely blended schmier.
Picasso is said to have worked extremely hard on the Gertrude Stein
portrait taking many sittings and then revising it without the model a
year later. It is in this portrait that Picasso probably discovered
the rousing effects of sprinkling a bit of ugliness here and there in
order to cover up incompentence. He would now continually test his
public for its capacity to absorb this ugliness. His findings must
have surprised even him.
If this portrait hung in a college hall among all those other dreary
portraits, signed Zeno, it wouldn't even get a short glance from Fox
or Bimbo White.
see
artnotice
zeno
Mani Deli wrote:
>If this portrait hung in a college hall among all those other dreary
> portraits, signed Zeno, it wouldn't even get a short glance from Fox
> or Bimbo White.
This image has the makings of a screenplay, maybe the remake of "Chumps At Oxford".
cuckoo! cuckoo!
Zeno
Mani Deli
Don't have anything to say to counter my criticism as usual.
Nothing-to-show-Zeno is as creative as a dead clam. Change your name
to Zero.