MICROSTORY OF ART

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Dedicated to Picasso wanting to be poor

(Picture: Pablo Picasso)

Picasso Wanting To Be Poor (Picasso in 2023, sixth and final installment)

(7.12.2023) It is probably true, as one German journalist (Hanno Rauterberg) had written in April, that Picasso’s art has fallen out of time. Who is interested in Picasso anyway? The MeToo-movement (to some degree), the auction houses, respectively the art market; but not even the museums that have, that had to do something in 2023, seem to have much interest in Picasso. Which, personally, does not bother me much, because, for a number of reasons, it is still interesting to know Picasso well: for example to ask oneself why some art is seen to define its time, while other art (the art of Picasso, for example) has fallen, seemingly, more or less completely out of time. The art of Picasso, in many respects, in that it is certainly mostly hand-made, represents an interesting contrast to all art machine made, or made with the help of technology, and this does not even mean to raise the question if it is about (male) genius of craft vs. the ingenious dilettante-artist. There is much in the biography of Picasso that would help to question current streams of art history (much of Picasso’s political art has fallen out of time very in particular; this does not apply, however, for Guernica, as it seems), and there is much in Picasso’s art that would allow to question current ways of visual representation (in social networks, for example) very in particular. And there is one point that interests me very in particular and this is the relation of artist and money. And here we go with our sixth and final installment of ›Picasso in 2023‹, recalling a little episode from the years 1959 and 1960.

One) Causing a Shitstorm

It is not quite clear what happened in early 1960. It seemed to contemporaries that Picasso had caused a shitstorm (they did not yet have that word, but this was what it was). It was reported in the press (probably at the very end of the year 1959) that Picasso had said that he ›wanted to be poor‹. Which enranged many people, and many people wrote to Picasso, asking provocatively why he did not send his money to them. One did not state, obviously, at least not in public, that one wanted to be poor, if one was rich and famous. It was felt to be obscene and insulting to poor people.
But in truth something more complicated had happened: a friend of Picasso (I guess it was Jean Cocteau) had told a journalist what, allegedly, Picasso had said in private, and probably – as usually – with a certain degree of irony: that he felt, as someone who was constantly giving to people, humiliated to be the one giving (and not the one taking), that he felt to be the richest man in the village, and that he rather wanted to be the poorest, because it was humiliating to be the richest man in the village. And so on. This was generally misunderstood as Picasso saying, without any irony, that he wanted to be poor. While in fact, Picasso had rather raised the question, who, if someone was giving and someone was taking, was the one humiliated. And I guess that Picasso indeed felt that way, that, on some level, he had an embarrassing wealth of money, and to have that money was in some way humiliating, because it was not necessarily justified to have, to dispose over such a degree of money (apart from the complicated question how to spend that money in a good way).

Two) The Archives

Picasso seems to have kept more or less all the letters people sent to him. His archives, today and in many respects, are an interesting resource, as to the ways people did communicate, then, for example, or as to the ways Picasso was asked for money, and for help. It is not quite clear to me, if his archives are a good source, if it is about finding out in what ways Picasso did give and spend his money. One will probably find many resources as to this partiuclar question in his archives, but I guess more and more precise informations one would find in the archives of his dealer Kahnweiler, because Picasso had many things done via Kahnweiler. After checking all letters from or to Kahnweiler in the archives of Picasso.

Three) A History of Mentalities

If Picasso, today, is seen as the embodiment of the artist who had reached fame and money, one might find that Picasso, perhaps has not completely fallen out of time. It is the image of the artist shuttling between a luxurious villa at Cannes and a chateau that he owned. And this, perhaps, seems to be still a very attractive image to a lot of people, especially young and aspiring artists, as it had been an attractive image for Andy Warhol, who certainly had not been much interested in the art of Picasso, but certainly in Picasso as an image (of wealth, of fame). Also Cocteau was constantly debating (with himself) of what exact nature the relation of Picasso and money (and luxury) was. Cocteau seems to have thought (as his journals show) that Picasso was attracted to luxury, but rather in the way a ›gipsy‹ was attracted to luxury. He, Picasso, did enjoy it, but with a certain ironic reserve, and while, at the same time, he was cultivating also an image of an artist living in disorder, chaotic studios, and with not an all too obvious interest for money. Perhaps Cocteau was right, and in some way Picasso had to deal with his wealth. Countless causes were supported by him, many in relation with communist causes, but not only. And Picasso seems to have accepted that, whatever he did, he did enrage or disappoint some people. It would be interesting to know – but we do not – if Picasso ever discussed his experiences with Maurice Thorez, the leader of the French Communist Party, because Thorez also resided in the South of France, at least occasionally. Also in a very representative villa, which was located only a few miles away from Villa La Californie, inhabited by Picasso. And: Also Thorez caused irritation. By residing in a way, which was not seen as being appropriate for a Communist.
It is virtually impossible today to find images of the villa Thorez had resided in (he seems to have given up the villa, at some point), while the archives of Picasso are still there, harboring a wealth of informations as to the history of mentalities. And a history of how people, how a society, and how artist see wealth and money, and how a society judges the ways people show money or talk about money (or about the alleged wish to be poor again), is part of such history of mentalities and certainly links our age with the era of Picasso (as well as with the era of Maurice Thorez).

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