ROOM TEXT PANEL: SECTION 8
Last Works
Some of Picasso's last works may seem bizarre and mysterious at first sight, defying our usual criteria of judgement. His art kept changing, kept evolving to the very end. Although many of his late works take figures to the brink of disintegration, the best of these works remain compelling and haunting through the expressive intensity and the formal unity Picasso brought to them (eg. cat. 84).
When Picasso's studio was inventoried after his death, the cataloguers of his
estate were surprised by the very small number of unfinished works. As the eminent
French curator Dominique Bozo put it: 'What is striking is the absence -- or
very small amount -- of work which is unfinished or was abandoned in midstream:
usually a normal element in what one might call the depths of a studio.' Nonetheless,
Picasso had often flirted with the appearance of "non-finish", exploiting
a deliberate rawness and simplicity of means. In many of his late canvases,
he experimented with "modelling" forms by using the most minimal means
(eg. cat. 83).
Picasso's commentators have interpreted changes they perceived in his last works in very different ways. Here is a sample of their opinions:
Picasso's biographer Pierre Daix emphasised the freedom and freshness of the last works: 'It was time to permit himself the intellectual immunity of old age and, with cunning and skill, to employ this immunity for maximum results.'
The art critic Tim Hilton thought he discerned a shaky hand: 'Picasso's wrist and fingers had begun to fail him,' he wrote, imputing a 'nearness to disability'.
The senior British painter Patrick Heron, after he had came to terms with his
initial scepticism and puzzlement, was completely won over: 'I'm certain that
what convinced me that Picasso's last paintings represent an astonishing breakthrough
-- and not just a set of brilliantly inventive variations on his own -- and
other artists' -- themes, was the sense that at last they had departed from
certain Picassian norms [...] It is the example of the greater freedom, the
more profound independence from every perceivable regularity which has led Picasso
into his final triumphs.'
Picasso did his last paintings in the summer of 1972, but continued drawing until the beginning of 1973, when he was overtaken by illness. He drew his last self-portrait (cat. 86) nine months before his death at the age of 91.
Acoustiguide 108
Music 204
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