A night at the museum

Recently, I had the funny experience of visiting an exhibit in the wee hours of the morning. But this was no ordinary exhibit. It was Picasso et Les Maitres which due to its great success included a 3 hour queue before being able to enter the Grand Palais. Luckily its great success also persuaded its organizers to open the exhibit for 24 hours during its last three days. Having said endlessly to each other that we simply could not miss this seemingly once in a lifetime exhibit, we found ourselves at 130 in the morning before the Grand Palais. Believe it or not, even at that hour we still queued for a good hour. Enough time for our feet to freeze in the winter air. Once inside however we forgot all thoughts of the wait or the cold. Awesome is definitely the word to best describe the exhibition. Not only was there a huge number of works by Picasso (there was 197 works in all) there was likewise a good number of different works by Velasquez, Ingres, Courbet, Goya and Manet. The works covered a whole gamut of Picasso’s oeuvre from his Blue, Pink, Black periods to his still lifes and portraits. The juxtaposition of Picasso with the other great masters enabled us (lucky) viewers to see, and study the echoes and equivalences between their works. Of course, being Picasso, these echoes were done through the prism of his own peculiar and particular genius. Often, the inspiration from the masters reflected in the composition of the tableau, or the colors he used. Sometimes the echo was so light that you couldn’t see it till you saw the work that inspired it. Seeing all these works together was a wonderfully instructive experience. It is amazing to see how much a particular piece of art can inspire another even when the two are separated by time and distance. And it illustrates to great effect what Picasso always believed –that art does not merely reflect what is present, but what should or could be present.

Some photos of the exhibit...

Velasquez' Las Meninas

Picasso's version..

Picasso's portrait of Olga, inspired by Ingres' Portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere.