PARIS-THE PICASSO MUSEUM (AN OMISSION)

[Jack]

By rereading my articles about the Marais, i noticed an unforgivable
omission, about one of the most important spots in the Marais, i
forgot to talk about: the Picasso museum.

This superb hotel de maitre was build in the 17th century for a "
nouveau riche" ( new rich) who made his fortune raising " la gabelle"
( taxes on salt). Ironically, the people named the place
l'hotel "Sale". The doors of the hotel open on a magnificent interior
stairway, and the exhibition halls, very well lighted, assemble w with
great success the ancient and the modern. Very well balanced, they
constitute an ideal setting for Picasso's works. Information panels,
concise and written in a pedagogic style, give the visitor the
opportunity to understand the different tendencies and changements of
the art of painting and the life of the artist. The young Picasso,
arriving from Barcelona without a penny, crazy about painting,
painting his bistro companions; the revelation of cubism and the epoch
of the Bateau Lavoir ( see my Montmartre walks); the succession of
sentimental or political adventures of the recognized master, who all
translate into new forms, new accents, from neo-classicism to
surrealism, to the violent baroque of the great"Nudes"; the
extraordinary fecundity of the genius who said"I don't look, i find".
The whole life of the "monster of the painting" is assembled here,
with important works, and above all a world unique ensemble , because
it covers, from 1905 until 1973, the whole production of Picasso.

Jack