The point about Picasso's Stalin portrait is not that it was non-realistic - given Picasso's brilliance as a draughtsman, the fact that it looked nothing like its subject can't have been accidental - but that it is a very poor piece of work.His peace dove became an icon of the world-wide peace movement (though his "dove in flight" successor was rather less successful, as an image), showing that our Pablo could produce good agit-prop when he felt moved to do so. Actually the flying dove has more in common with his Korea and Guernica works, because all three are rhetorical, rather than graphical. The concept is more powerful than its representation. Though his Guernica is widely loved, this has probably more to do with empathy for the victims of this fascist massacre from the air than appreciation of its artistic merit. If one compares the Korea piece with Goya's similar depictions of judicial murders, then Picasso's weakness becomes self-evident. The French party wasn't a bunch of philistines. The fact that it was only this work which attracted top-level criticism, rather than his "less political" work, shows that it wasn't his political stance (or, as he himself maintained, his lack of it), that offended them. But undoubtedly, when the left throughout the world was mourning Stalin's death, to commemorate him with this weird piece of kitsch, was a provocative act on his behalf. And he cannot have been surprised at the response it provoked. KARL DALLAS
On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 7:00 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:23:23 -0400 > From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Comrade Picasso > To: <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > But party criticism of a portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic > cooled Picasso?s interest in communist politics, though he remained a loyal > member of the Communist Party until his death. In a 1945 interview with > Jerome Seckler, Picasso stated: ?I am a Communist and my painting is > Communist painting. ? But if I were a shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or > anything else, I would not necessarily hammer my shoes in a special way to > show my politics.?[ > > > Political views > > > Pablo Picasso, Massacre in Korea, 1951 > Picasso remained neutral during World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and > World War II, refusing to fight for any side or country. Some of his > contemporaries felt that his pacifism had more to do with cowardice than > principle. An article in The New Yorker called him ?a coward, who sat out > two world wars while his friends were suffering and dying?.[9] As a Spanish > citizen living in France, Picasso was under no compulsion to fight against > the invading Germans in either World War. In the Spanish Civil War, service > for Spaniards living abroad was optional and would have involved a voluntary > return to the country to join either side. While Picasso expressed anger and > condemnation of Francisco Franco and fascists through his art, he did not > take up arms against them. He also remained aloof from the Catalan > independence movement during his youth despite expressing general support > and being friendly with activists within it. > In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended an > international peace conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the Stalin > Peace Prize from the Soviet government.[10] But party criticism of a > portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic cooled Picasso?s interest in > communist politics, though he remained a loyal member of the Communist Party > until his death. In a 1945 interview with Jerome Seckler, Picasso stated: ?I > am a Communist and my painting is Communist painting. ? But if I were a > shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or anything else, I would not necessarily > hammer my shoes in a special way to show my politics.?[11] He was against > the intervention of the United Nations and the United States[12] in the > Korean civil war and he depicted it in Massacre in Korea. In 1962, he > received the International Lenin Peace Prize. > > > > This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. > www.surfcontrol.com > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
