PARIS.- From 21 March to 3 September 2017, the
Mus閑 national Picasso-Paris presents the first exhibition dedicated to the years shared between Pablo燩icasso and his first wife, Olga Khokhlova.
Through a rich selection of more than 350 works of art, paintings, drawings, unseen written and photographic archives, the exhibition attempts to爑nderstand the execution of Picasso's major artworks between 1917 and1935 by recreating his artistic production filtered through the social and爌olitical history of the interwar period.
Olga Khokhlova was born to a colonel in 1891, in Nizhyn, a Ukrainian town located within the Russian Empire. In 1912, she entered the prestigious and爄nnovative Russian Ballet directed by Sergei Diaghi-lev. It was in燫ome, spring 1917, where she met Pablo Picasso while he was producing, upon爄nvitation of Jean Cocteau, the decorations and costumes of the燽allet Parade (music by Erik Satie, theme by Jean Cocteau, choreography by燣閛nide Massine). They get married on July 12, 1918, in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral at the Rue Daru, with Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob and燝uillaume Apollinaire as their witnesses.
As the perfect model during Picasso's classical period, Olga was first portrayed by thin, elegant lines characterized by the influence of the French neoclassical painter Ingres. Synonymous with a certain return to figuration, Olga is often represented as melancholic, sitting, while reading or writing, no doubt an allusion to the correspondence she maintained with her family that was going through a tragic moment in history. In fact, at the same time, in contrast to the couple's social ascent and the accruing artistic recognition of Picasso's works, the Russian Empire, severely destroyed by the Great War, suffered a major economic and food crisis while losing more than two million soldiers on the war front. Olga's family also suffered a tragedy, which was reflected in the letters she received: declining social status, the燿isappearance of her father, and finally, correspondence with her family was gradually interrupted. After the birth of their first child, Paul, on February 4, 1921, Olga became the inspiration for numerous maternity scenes, compositions bathed in innocent softness. The family scenes and爌ortraits of the young boy show the serene happiness which flourishes notably in timeless shapes. These forms correspond to Picasso's new attention to antiquity and the renaissance discovered in Italy, which was爎eactivated by the family's summer holiday in Fontainebleau in 1921.
After the encounter in 1927 with Marie-Th閞鑣e Walter, a 17-year-old woman who will become Picasso's mistress, Olga's figure metamorphoses. In Le Grand nu au fauteuil rouge (1929), Olga is nothing but pain and爏orrow. Her form is flaccid with violent expression and translates the爊ature of爐he燾ouple's profound crisis. Even though the spouses separate for爂ood in1935, the year that incidentally marks a temporary cessation of爐he爌ainter's work, they will stay married until Olga's death in 1955.
Room 1. The Olga period
Olga Khokhlova (1891-1955), the artist's first wife, lived with Pablo Picasso from 1917 to 1935. The artist's muse from their first encounter, she is the燼rtist's most represented female figure from the end of the 1910s and燼爉ajor focus in his work in the early 1920s.
Mirroring their marital relations, which from 1924 (the year of the Surrealist Manifesto), became increasingly strained, the representation of Olga in燩icasso's work changed in the mid-1920s. Her presence became more爎emote, less apparent, but genuinely permeated the artist's production up until 1935, the year of their separation, and even after that.
This exhibition, the first focussing exclusively on the figure of Olga, marks爐he centenary of the meeting of Picasso and Olga. In the light of燼爏ignificant selection of personal archives, some of which have never before been exhibited, it reassesses the "Olga period" and the works from爐his period by contextualising their creation and highlighting the燿ifference that sometimes exists between the model and her image in爐he work of Picasso.
Room 2. Melancholy
When Olga met Pablo Picasso in1917, the country she had left a爁ew years previously to join Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes dancers was in the throes of major historical events: the February Revolution which brought about the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, followed by the October Revolution and the overthrow of爐he recently formed provisional government, followed by several years of燾ivil war. The young ballerina lost all contact with her family between October 1917 and1920, but when correspondence was finally resumed, the news from her mother Lydia and爃er sister Nina was alarming. While her father and brothers joined the燾ounter-revolutionary forces as colonel and爋fficers, the爄nstallation of爐he爊ew Soviet society suddenly plunged her family into a precarious situation.
Olga is omnipresent in the work of Picasso. The numerous classic portraits by爐he artist of his爓ife portray her in an established, static and thoughtful manner. Her staring and爋ften vacant look is perhaps the manifestation of爃er燾oncern for爃er爁amily. Picasso perfectly captures all the ambiguity of this woman whose beauty, underlined by the expressiveness of an Ingres line or an Antique roundness, is bathed in a soft and deep melancholy, a爎eflection of爃er tragic situation and powerlessness in the face of the dramas confronting her family.
Room 3. The story of a life
Shortly after her death in 1955, Olga's son Paul retrieved his mother's personal cabin trunk, bearing her initials: this is one of the major - and爉agical - objects that help reveal the story of a life of which, for燼爈ong time, little was known. What emerges from the contents of this trunk letters in French and Russian, old photographs, various objects such as ballet slippers, tutus, crucifix or almanacs - is the extraordinary destiny of a woman who left her family in 1915 not knowing that she would never see them again. Enhanced by a collection of archives and works by Pablo Picasso, this room evokes more especially Olga's career as a dancer, becoming a member of the Ballets Russes in 1911, her meeting with Picasso in Rome in February 1917 while preparing for the presentation of the ballet Parade, and their wedding in July 1918 at the Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky Russian orthodox church in rue Daru in Paris which, from 1917, was one of爐he爉ain meeting places for the White Russian emigrant community.
Room 4. Changement de d閏or
While Russia was in the midst of a severe economic and food crisis that爓ould have dramatic lasting effects on Olga's family, the newlyweds were experiencing a dizzying social rise which corresponded with the爄ncreasing recognition of the works of Pablo Picasso. The couple's circle of friends and their different dwellings, such as, from 1918, the apartment in rue La燘o閠ie in Paris, the villa in Juan-les-Pins, or later, the燾h鈚eau de燘oisgeloup acquired in 1930, bear witness to this new social environment. Bohemian Montmartre, embodied by Max Jacob and燝uillaume Apollinaire, gave爓ay to燼n unprecedented modernity of post-war intelligentsia. New爁aces appeared in the Picassos' immediate entourage: Eugenia Errazuriz, a rich Chilean who arranged the first meetings of Picasso with燬erge de Diaghilev, as well as with Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau and燼lso Count 蓆ienne de燘eaumont, well known for regularly hosting those爒ery grand balls that燨lga loved.
Room 5. Maternity
With the birth of the couple's first and only child, Paul, on the 4th February 1921, Olga became the inspiration for numerous maternity scenes, compositions that燼re suffused with a softness that was new in the work of燩ablo Picasso. The爁amily scenes reveal a serenity that comes to the爁ore in爌articular in爐he爐imeless figures which coincide with a new interest in燗ntiquity and爐he燫enaissance that Picasso had rediscovered with Olga in營taly in 1917, and爓hich was revived by a summer stay in Fontainebleau in1921. This maternity brought the couple closer together but did nothing to爎elieve the latent melancholia of Olga who was constantly torn燽etween the pleasures of her everyday life and the obvious distress she felt on爎eading the flow of燼larming news from her family, whose fortunes were爏teadily worsening.
Room 6. Paul
The arrival of Paul in the life of the couple brought about a爊ew爈ifestyle that included a nurse, a cook and a chauffeur. Paul was the focus of all Olga's attentions. Their great complicity is爎evealed in numerous photographs and films. Picasso was also very proud of his son Paul. This filial relationship is asserted by燩ablo in several portraits, in particular by transmitting to Paul the Harlequin costume with which the artist himself identified in his early years during the Rose Period. In another portrait he爎epresents his little son drawing, perhaps trying to recapture the sensations that he himself, also the son of a painter, felt爄n爃is childhood. Paul did not know his Russian grandparents but爎eceived letters from them. The exchanges between the two families continued, with the Picassos providing support through money sent regularly and sometimes even a few works by Pablo, including a horse, no doubt similar to a d閏oupage completed at爐he same time for Paul.
Room 7. Metamorphosis
1925 probably marks the year when Pablo Picasso realised that his marriage with燨lga was over. In April he joined Serge de燚iaghilev in Monte Carlo and爌roduced numerous drawings of dancers at work. This trip almost certainly increased Olga's bitterness as, for health reasons, she爃ad been forced to give up her career as燼燿ancer several years earlier. Henceforth and until the mid-1930s, the figure of爐he爓ife would be transformed in Picasso's painting. In 1929, in Grand Nu au fauteuil rouge (Large Nude in a Red Armchair), she爓as reduced to pain, in a flabby, monstrous shape, an爀xpressive violence reflecting the爊ature of the couple's marital crisis. In 1931, it was clearly another women occupying the red armchair. The爁ace remains undefined, partially erased, but the roundness and爏ensuality of the body shapes leave no燿oubt as to the existence of燼爊ew muse in the work of the artist.
Room 8. On film
Contrasting with the representations of Olga in the painted, drawn and engraved works, the爁ootage shot by the couple in their private life - in their apartment in rue La Bo閠ie, on爃oliday in Dinard, Cannes and Juan-les-Pins, or in the Boisgeloup grounds - reveals a very different picture of Madame Picasso: here we爏ee a woman in motion, extrovert and爏miling, who captures the light and seeks to爏educe the eye of the camera. This facet of燨lga that Pablo Picasso shows us here is the爉ore liberated and爏pontaneous secret side of the private life of an artist clearly enchanted by the magic of film and its dramatic drive. Regardless of the purpose of these documents, film footage, at the start of爐he 1930s, is where Olga stars and takes centre stage and爏eems willingly to reconnect with a certain taste for performance.
Room 9. Bathers
The meeting in 1927 of Marie-Th閞鑣e Walter and Pablo Picasso, whose爉istress she became, deepened the crisis that the couple were going through. Even though the relationship between the lovers was kept secret, notably because of Marie-Th閞鑣e's young age, it surfaces most explicitly in Pablo's painting. In the same way that Olga appears implicitly in numerous surrealist figures that, more often than not, are disturbing and brutal, Marie-Th閞鑣e is the inspiration of a series of Baigneuses produced in Dinard, a small seaside resort in Brittany where the family - and燤arie-Th閞鑣e secretly - stayed for a number of weeks in 1928 and 1929. Whereas Olga is depicted in muted, greyish tones with heavy and sharp shapes, Marie-Th閞鑣e is, on the contrary, represented in a fresher palette and in airborne and often highly erotic postures which are indicative of燼ll爐he energy and joy that she inspired in the artist.
Room 10. Circus
Major themes during the Rose Period, circus燼nd燼crobats reappear in the work of燩ablo Picasso at the beginning of the 1920s, and later in the 1930. No燿oubt reactivated by the birth of燩aul, the爎epresentation of the circus in1922, which爁rom1905 was associated with爐he燞arlequin paternity cycle (the燼rtist's燿ouble), continued to燿evelop a wider iconography of the performing arts爓orld. Picasso was less interested in爐he燼ctual ring than in its fringes, this爉arginal and roving life, with women breast-feeding, tightrope walkers at rest and爁igures doing their hair. As before, Picasso燾ontinued to mix the sources of燾ommedia dell'arte with the circus world, transposing his爌rivate life to the register of爐heatre. In 1930 his燼ttention was caught by燼crobatic feats and the anatomical liberties爐hey allowed.
Room 11. Studio
Traversed by a unitary pictorial script, all in arabesques, Peintre et爉od鑜e offers a view of the studio in which the artist, model and爌ainting are爄nseparably linked and interdependent. This is true also in real life. If燨lga爄s omnipresent in the portraits from the so-called classic period and爐hough her face disappears little by little from Pablo Picasso's painting, this does not mean that she is absent from her husband's work after 1925. Her idealised and melancholic image gives way to female representations that are radically deformed and often representing violent or aggressive attitudes. Olga truly haunts Picasso's painting and engulfs the space of his爏tudio, supposedly his refuge. Her image is transformed into a爐hreatening, monstrous woman with a爌ointed nose like a dagger, grinning爁rom ear to爀ar. In several paintings and燿rawings she even covers Picasso's self-portrait in profile, thereby clearly demonstrating the爃old爏he燾ontinued to爀xert on the man and爐he燼rtist. The Baiser from1931, which portrays a爁igure with eyes closed, abandoned, and燼爁igure爈ooking away, symbolises the decline and燼mbiguity of爐his燼morous relationship which cannibalised the relationship between爐he燾ouple.
Room 12. Crucifixions and corridas
Powerful and central themes in the work of Pablo Picasso in the early 1930s, bull fights (corrida) and the crucifixion are, over and beyond their own symbolism, intimately linked with the artist's personal life. More especially, in爐he female bullfighter, we can identify the face of Marie-Th閞鑣e Walter, while certain organic and threatening forms of the Crucifixion resemble, through their stylistic treatment, representations of Olga as they appear at the same period, especially in certain mineral bathers. At times reduced to a contest between the bull and the horse, the corrida, by evacuating the bullfighter (torero), increases the violence of the confrontation of two entities which, by extension, can be interpreted as the male and the female, Pablo and Olga. Here too Picasso appropriates a traditional iconography and爎evisits it from the perspective of his own personal history. His private life had an influence on his work and conveyed a tragic dimension which is both a reflection of a troubled historical period and a marital situation that燩icasso was experiencing more and more as a painful test, for which corridas and燾rucifixions constitute poignant metaphors.
Room 13. Eros and Thanatos
Figure par excellence of the爑niting of爐he forces of life and death, the燤inotaur, the new alter ego of Pablo Picasso, symbolises the燾omplexity and燼mbivalence of爐he爎elations that爐he artist maintained with爓omen in the early 1930s. Torn between his passion for燤arie-Th閞鑣e, who爂ave birth to燼燿aughter - Maya - in燬eptember 1935, and爃is燿uty as the爃usband of燨lga, Picasso transposed his爋wn story to燼ncient mythology. The爒iolence of the燼morous relations and the爄mpetuosity of燿esire are爌ersonified in the depictions of燼bduction, scenes inspired by燚ionysian antiquity. Picasso will爀ven go so far as to燾reate his爋wn personal mythology, merging several iconographic sources (corrida,燾rucifixion and Minotaur) in爐he燾elebrated Minotauromachy, a爐ragic fable that crystallises the爐urmoil in爃is life at that time and爓hich also saw a temporary halt in his painting in 1935. From that year, during which the married couple finally separated, the presence of燨lga in燩icasso's work becomes more discreet and less aggressive, reflecting the爏olitude and suffering of a woman who would continue to write daily to爐he man who - in the eyes of the law - would remain her husband up until her燿eath in1955.
Room 14. Olga Forever
An Italian artist born in Brescia in 1971, Francesco Vezzoli has always been爁ascinated by cultural icons, actresses, dancers and singers. His work incorporates images of stars and questions the way in which fame or talent can alter identity. It also reveals the gap that may sometimes exist between the public image and private reality. Completed in 2012, Olga燜orever comprises a series of nineteen oil painting portraits of Olga Picasso inspired by photographs of her selected from the Fundaci髇 Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA) private archives. Enlarged and爎eworked using collage and embroidery techniques that overlay patterns of tears and燾haracters from the Ballets Russes, these portraits materialise the爏uffering and longing of this woman who was both rich and famous. "Olga weeps for all the ballets she never danced out of love for燩icasso," explains Vezzoli. "Through this work I am paying homage to燨lga, who爀mbodies my sensitivity and obsessions."
