Indepth Arts News:
"Brassaï/Picasso: Conversations with Light"
2000-02-02 until 2000-05-01
Musée Picasso
Paris, ,
FR France
Fitting into the cycle of exhibitions
put on by the Musée Picasso since
1994 to investigate the painter's
relationship with photography, this
exhibition focuses on his
collaboration with Brassaï
(1899-1984). Recent additions to the
museum's collections have enabled it
to present, for the first time, a
significant body of their work in
common, organised around two
major themes: photographs of
sculptures and various uses of the
glass plate technique.
Brassaï and Picasso met in 1932
through Tériade, who had
commissioned a series of photos of
the rue La Boétie studio and of
recent plaster sculptures done by Picasso at Boisgeloup, for the first issue of the review Minotaure.
Later on, between 1943 and 1946, Brassaï photographed Picasso's entire sculpted work for Les
Sculptures de Picasso, 1949, published by Chêne, with a preface by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Between
1932 and 1946, Brassaï therefore systematically photographed Picasso's sculpted work, which was
virtually unknown at the time. This led to a dialogue between the two artists on the respective nature of
photography and sculpture. Conversations avec Picasso, published by Brassaï in 1964, made famous
the ins and outs of their dialogue.In 1996, the Musée Picasso acquired that part of Brassaï's
photographic collection which dealt with the life and work of Picasso. It is the richest public collection on
the photographer, containing over 440 photos. The exhibition displays 150 of them, mostly
unpublished, in a series of short sequences which associate them with works by Picasso in plaster,
wood, bronze or torn paper. By changing the viewpoint, framing or lighting, Brassaï reveals what could
be considered his 'manifesto' on the photography of sculpture.One December evening in 1932, Brassaï
left a small blank photographic plate behind in the rue La Boétie studio. Picasso took hold of it and
etched a portrait of Marie-Thérèse on it. It was a decisive episode for Brassaï, who later wrote to
Picasso: It was you who aroused the demon of drawing in me. (Letter dated 15 May 1945, Picasso
records, Paris). Subsequently, both artists experimented with the glass plate technique, each in his own
way.
The work of printing photographic proofs from a painted glass plate (Picasso) or from an engraved
photographic plate (Brassaï) combined the potential of photography, engraving and drawing. In
1934-35, Brassaï made over 150 'scratchings' from about thirty negatives of 'nudes' dating from
1931-1935. The exhibition presents the various states of these 'scratchings'. Photography sometimes
vanished into thin air. In places, a few scraps survived; a trembling nipple, a foreshortened face, a
thigh, an arm. (Brassaï, Transmutations) In his turn, Picasso took the experiment still further in
1936-1937 with a series of four large glass plates painted in oil, from which he printed about twenty
proofs, laying paper cut-outs, pieces of fabric or objects on top of the glass plates.
With the Dora Maar bequest, all Picasso's plates and prints have recently joined the Musée Picasso's
collections. Except for four reproductions published in Cahiers d'art in 1937, they are all unpublished.
For his part, Brassaï published twelve shots which emerged from his research in 1934-1935, under the
title Transmutations, in 1967. The 60 proofs and 26 original negatives presented here allow the
spectator to gauge the value of the results obtained by the photographer.
The exhibition also contains Brassaï's working contact sheets, often annotated and highlighted,
records, books, drawings and dedications which are the milestones in the remarkable collaboration
between Brassaï and Picasso.Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Brassaï (9 September 1899), the
exhibition reveals an aspect of both artists' work which has remained secret, and the dynamics of which
is the fascination they shared for photography and sculpture, drawing and photography. From these
techniques, they constructed their own worlds. By ceaselessly questioning and testing them, they
reshaped these techniques in a decisive way. At a time when researchers are delving into the
mainsprings of creation in the twentieth century, it seemed useful to reconstitute the fine thread of this
dialogue in which Brassaï and Picasso tempt, defy, and answer each other in the language of
photography.
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