The Brooklyn Rail

Despite our changing understanding of what constitutes artistic prowess and the continued abandonment of a masculine conception of originality, Picasso remains the quintessential example of an artist who early in their career makes a body of work so powerful and singular that it becomes the source for an exaggerated mythology, which in turn comes to define them. Critics, historians, and the general public perpetuate this mythology, which ends up becoming the measure of the rest of their career and then legacy. So, it is with Pablo Picasso who produced an early body of work that made him a celebrity and eventually a meme. The effect of this is that the general audience does not see Picasso’s work or its merit, what they see is the legend behind the picture. Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks at Pace Gallery is an art historical endeavor that looks past mythmaking and offers an opportunity to see the evolution of his ideas.

The fourteen sketchbooks dating from 1900 to 1959 that are at the core of this exhibit represent only a fraction of the known notebooks Picasso left behind, yet even with this meager sampling one can trace the evolution of his ideas across painting and sculpture. In them he uses a variety of media, which showcases his experimental nature. Studying these notebooks allows one to trace the evolution of Picasso’s ideas and stylistic and thematic changes over time, as well as his successes and failures. Despite the fact that each sketchbook can only be opened to an single page, subsequent pages are displayed via a video loop, while the sketchbooks themselves are exhibited alongside related ceramics and paintings, as well as photographs, films, and archival materials that are all contextualized by a rich body of research.

Tracing the evolution of Picasso’s artistic styles and themes, this exhibit emphasizes the radical shifts that characterized his various periods. It is obvious that he was attached to drawing not only as a form of notation but as a way of thinking. Though often in his work there is a sense of the impromptu, in the notebooks we see how he exhaustively worked out his ideas, exactly redrawing the parts that satisfied him while re-thinking those that did not. In a seemingly academic manner Picasso thoroughly rehearsed his work. Yet, as one delves deeper into this trove, as pastiche replaces innovation one finds oneself questioning the criteria by which his work is evaluated. It appears that Picasso, by the 1930s, became more predictable, incorporating more traditional themes and modes of representation, his early innovations becoming stylistic devices.

Several of Picasso’s notebooks are of particular note. One dating to 1907, records the period in which Picasso wrestled with the composition for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). There are studies in ink and pencil studies of the pose of the women facing forward that appear at the center of the Demoiselles. In one study she has a single arm raised over her head, in another both arms are raised. From this one gets the sense that Picasso might have been working from a model rather than inventing these figures. There are also studies for the still-life that appear in the foreground. Some consist of jugs and fruit, others just the jugs. These also convey a sense of observation. From this sketchbook we can jump to those from his Cubist period, which are less focused. In these Picasso works in a somewhat random manner, filling the pages with studies of Cubist heads and musical instruments. These drawing relate closely to the paintings, papiers collés, and constructions of 1913. There are also studies for the composition Woman in an Armchair (1909-10, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which features a female nude seated in a chair. Throughout the sketchbooks the drawings are accompanied by miscellaneous notes, addresses, annotations of sales, as well as such things as records of bank deposits. A notebook from 1924 on the other hand contains precise and often technical ink drawings, in which Picasso uses patterns of dots and lines to experiment with the shape of guitars and other objects. These are followed by various notebooks which represent the period after 1928, when on the eve of the Great Depression art and society would again radically change.

By the 1930s, abstract art and Surrealism had become the preoccupation of the avant-garde, subsequently Picasso, as he trailed after the Surrealists, became more of a follower then a leader. In the post-war years we can see him drifting toward expressionism and historicism as he seeks to preserve the figurative tradition and prove that abstract art is not the inevitable outcome of modernism and its vanguardism. Always a great synthesizer, Picasso began making fantastical, and mythological themed drawings, which reflect the influence of the Surrealists. In the 1956–57 sketchbook, Picasso again reflects upon war, death, and aging. We also find here whimsical childlike drawings, fanciful monsters, and clownlike figures. Though not represented here, the later notebooks from the 1960s record his nearly pornographic exploration of sensuality which offers a unique perspective on his personal life and psyche as he comes to represent himself in varied guises.

This exhibition of Picasso’s notebooks is an intimate reminder that Picasso’s work is not just innovative or an exercise in creative prowess, but personal—the product of a particular sensibility and intellect. There is pleasure to be taken from this well-crafted exhibition and from Picasso’s work as well.