Word: picassos
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...Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin), currently playing at the Shubert Theatre, is an enjoyable if somewhat slight affair. It mixes laughs with more serious themes, and while this melange of the silly and the sober can sometimes seem forced, on the whole it succeeds admirably in keeping the audience engrossed--making its running time of 90 minutes seem barely...
...Picasso plays with the conceit of an imaginary meeting between Albert Einstein (Mark Nelson) and Pablo Picasso (Paul Provenza) in a Parisian bistro right at the turn of the century. Both men are in their early twenties, and each one is on the verge of his greatest accomplishments. During the course of the evening, the two men argue, duel, exchange ideas and learn a thing or two from the other. Martin keeps the surprises coming, and any who see the play may rest assured that they will be delighted at the special "guest" he introduces near...
That art could be beautiful when dealing with neutral subjects, such as in the Mirror series, 1969-72. When he turned to high-art ones (his pastiches of Picasso, Cezanne, Balla, Matisse and so on), he could wittily run variations on art-history classics without mocking the seriousness of his sources. He brought them down a bit, without malice, just as he raised the comics a bit, without condescension. He looked vulgar 35 years ago; today you see his dandy's taste almost before you see the painting...
...following these two paintings we are plunged not into "Les Demoiselles D'Avignion," his great masterpiece of 1907, but the exhibition gift shop replete with Picasso cups and saucers. Though it would be unfair to fault the curators for the exclusion of this painting, which would clearly have overshadowed all of the others in the show, one can't help feeling a sense of frustration upon leaving the exhibition's final gallery. We crave follow-through or some kind of resolution after bearing with so much of Picasso's self-searching work...
...find satisfaction in catalogs of his later work--or in the recognition that we've just had a peek at a remarkably ambitious artist's struggle for self-definition. Though this may seem like a highly academic justification for spending an afternoon and the price of admission, Picasso may be one of the few artists who can make us appreciate this process almost as much as the final rewards.Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts and Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society, New YorkPicasso's "Woman in a Chemise" shows signs of a maturing technique...