This is a fascinating film, giving the viewer some insight into the creative process of one of the giants of 20th century art. The filmmaker uses some special equipment and time lapse photography to show the evolution of about 20 drawings and paintings that Picasso made for this film in 1956, when he was 75. Although Picasso is in the film, we don't actually see him during the painting process. The paintings fill the entire frame and the brush strokes appear one stroke at a time, giving the feel of a magical children's animated film.
After some quick drawings with decidedly mixed results in which Picasso draws on the back of a light box ( We can see the colors change as the paint dries), Picasso tells the filmmaker he wants to replicate his actual painting process more accurately with oil paint.
The film technique switches here to time lapse photography, and what astounded me is how many revisions, obliterations and over paintings Picasso did. I had an image of him in my mind as a sure-handed artist who rarely reworked paintings- a supremely confident virtuoso. However he repaints parts of some of these paintings literally dozens of times. Different sections of the paintings are constantly morphing from one style to another. He often uses white to go back in and change the drawing.
In this respect, he is much closer to an artist like deKooning than I thought, constantly painting over entire sections and using white to define his line. A major difference was that deKooning left far more evidence of the struggle than Picasso. Interestingly, deKooning was near the height of his fame when this film was made. Picasso's greatest works, of course, were done 40 and 50 years before this film.
What we see here is an artist for whom the act of painting is enough, who is no longer in the avant garde, but who still struggles with the creative process. For artists of a certain age, for whom Picasso was a towering presence to be reckoned with, this film demystifies him, revealing an artist of mortal limitations. But also an artist of great courage and freedom.
After some quick drawings with decidedly mixed results in which Picasso draws on the back of a light box ( We can see the colors change as the paint dries), Picasso tells the filmmaker he wants to replicate his actual painting process more accurately with oil paint.
The film technique switches here to time lapse photography, and what astounded me is how many revisions, obliterations and over paintings Picasso did. I had an image of him in my mind as a sure-handed artist who rarely reworked paintings- a supremely confident virtuoso. However he repaints parts of some of these paintings literally dozens of times. Different sections of the paintings are constantly morphing from one style to another. He often uses white to go back in and change the drawing.
In this respect, he is much closer to an artist like deKooning than I thought, constantly painting over entire sections and using white to define his line. A major difference was that deKooning left far more evidence of the struggle than Picasso. Interestingly, deKooning was near the height of his fame when this film was made. Picasso's greatest works, of course, were done 40 and 50 years before this film.
What we see here is an artist for whom the act of painting is enough, who is no longer in the avant garde, but who still struggles with the creative process. For artists of a certain age, for whom Picasso was a towering presence to be reckoned with, this film demystifies him, revealing an artist of mortal limitations. But also an artist of great courage and freedom.