I dashed from the Frick Collection over to the Whitney last night - knowing I did not have much time; it was 5:30 PM and I was let in for free and a guard told me to see Picasso and American Art on the 4th Floor - so I did - and what a show!

However, the Whitney site does not show much of the details about the Picasso and American Art exhibition - I understand they want people to visit - and no photography is allowed (so they want you to buy the catalog - I guess) ……

…but what about all those people who want to go but can’t (because they don’t live or visit NYC)? 

I think it’s somewhat shortsighted of the Whitney to not have put the entire Catalog of Picasso and American Art online - so it can be more widely discussed.  After all - it’s that level of Internet participation with Art Communities that makes Art interesting today…that is our 21st century Renaissance.  As a result, I need to quote other magazine articles that do discuss Picasso and American Art in more depth than the Whitney does - online.

To quote New York Magazine (which actually has some content) ..

“Picasso and American Art,” now at the Whitney, is an ambitious examination of how this great father-monster shaped the modern American imagination. The way serious artists influence one another is always a subtle and complex subject, especially when the interplay occurs, as it does here, among strong, independent figures rather than between a leader and his followers (as was the case with, say, Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti). In an exhibit where space is limited and curators cannot display less-visible forms of influence, such as the moral or personal sway of an artist, the focus inevitably narrows. “Picasso and American Art” leaves out much. But what it does do—juxtapose paintings—it does brilliantly. Those who like to look closely at individual works will savor the show, entering a state of compare-and-contrast bliss. And, more mysteriously, they may gain a better sense of what’s peculiarly American.”

Since I could not photograph anything, and there’s no online catalog - all I can say …. I had no idea that Jasper Johns was so influenced by Picasso till I saw this exhibition … a show I will go back to a couple of times (plus there’s a lot I missed at the Whitney that’s running right now).

Jasper John’s encaustic /wax and oil paintings are FANTASTIC - and there’s a lot of them in the Picasso show ….. it shows a range of work of John’s that is not particularly well represented in books or online - but is absolutely some of his finest work …and it turns out.. inspired largely by Pablo Picasso - who would have known?  I guess it is known..but who would have known that Picasso has SO MUCH influence on Modern American Art - since he never actually came to America?  Well, he did influence a lot of of struggling artists who worshiped Picasso’s popularity in the 1930’s and 1940’s and grew up to be famous artists themselves - like Jasper Johns.

But the show also says something at Picasso - and my inner intuition whispered this in my ear.

“…Picasso became bored with painting reality, painting representational reality by 1910.  Essentially, Picasso focused entirely on 2 and 3 dimensional design as a “problem to be solved”  and then put an eye or an arm of a part of a face on it …. to give it human meaning …. and meaning to him.  

You can trace the large ovals and circles on a flat plane as what interested him, balancing it with form and color …and then putting an eye there..to make it a face, or an arm, to show it was a shoulder.    Picasso essentially disconnected design from visual meaning ..and then threw in the eye, the arm, the hand, they table as a marker to where he began…and ended.  

Because of that … his later works are not that satisfying on a human level - though they are masterpieces of design and construction.  Picasso embodied the philosophy of his times, that painting really was just a representation of 2 dimensional objects …so he went all the way - to purely abstract qualities - and yet, still had to say …this is a person, this is a table, this is a still life….. because he thought that it still needed a connection to visual reality…the reality he now found boring.”

However, the influenced painters in this show, with the exception of Jasper Johns, don’t produce anything nearly as good as Picasso’s work … how could they ..when they imitate him?  

I’ll have more to say when I see the Picasso and American Art, perhaps Friday, when I will attempt to visit a friend, Liz Camps, in a nearby hospital, recovering from an operation.  I don’t usually like visiting hospitals..but I will, for a friend.