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Entering the
farmhouse, Malraux confronts two small portraits by Douanier
Rousseau, a figure by Derain, and looking down from above,
Douanier's life-size head of 'Yadwiga'. His Renoirs, his Chardin,
his Cézannes and the serenity of a Matisse are shattered by his
works which inherently are in conflict with nature: 'Obviously
nature has to exist so that we may rape it.' His laughing Satyr
seemed to be laughing at all those paintings, stressing that
continuity of style for him was being against God: 'Down with
style! Does God have a style? He made a guitar, the Harlequin,
the dachshund, the cat, the owl, the dove. The elephant and the
whale, fine — but the elephant and the squirrel? A real
hodgepodge! He made what does not exist. So did I. He even made
paint. So did I.' His working principle was: 'One must do
everything on the condition that one never does it again.
Picasso's
collection of some more Matisses, Cézanne's 'Bathers', a figure
by Carot, a Van Dongen fauve crowd the room along with two
dominating works by Braque who had loved 'Negro' masks only
because they were 'good sculptures'. As Picasso put it, 'he did
not find them hostile or foreign, he doesn't understand these
things at all: he is not superstitious!' But Picasso had found
the masks 'magical intercesseurs'. They were against everything
— against the unknown and threatening spirits. They were arms
to assist people wrestle spirits. Picasso believed strongly that
the great masterpiece 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' came to him
because 'it was my first exorcism-painting.' Here lay the
metamorphosis of the soul, a view that painting and sculpture
does nothing but save the soul. Here was his deep sensitivity to
ancient forms, forms like the bull, the skull, the horse that
are present in 'Guernica'.
These were toys
he had played with all his life. The 'Woman with Baby Carriage',
the 'Little Girl Skipping', 'The Reaper', all he had frolicked
with. He had played at making a woman out of a packet of
cigarettes; not a string lying on the floor escaped his eye. A
pebble on the road, if it took his fancy, went into his pocket
to be used later. He was delighted when he put together a
bicycle seat and handlebars, but he was even more elated when he
created a horse out of them. But the secret language of all
these works is their unity.
The reaction in
the late 19th century against naturalism in art led to a
progression of various movements in the 20th century. In each of
these periods of advancement Picasso played a central part. His
subject matter grew less gloomy as he developed and included
dancers, acrobats, and harlequins. In 1907, Picasso set off in
an entirely unusual direction with 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.
This painting demonstrates the weight of his new absorption with
primitive art and carvings, principally those of African
derivation. The picture epitomizes a foremost defining moment in
art because it opened the door to cubism and the later abstract
movement. By the time he painted 'Guernica', his stirring vision
of the Spanish Civil War, the straight lines of early cubism had
given way to curved forms.
The book is amazing for its
animating force, with the 'mask' in the title representing a
range of facets of the artist's life. It is not only a warm
memoir, but a meticulous commentary and investigation of much of
his work that brings out its worth to modernism as well as the
palpable presence of the 'Museum Without Walls' felt in the very
ambience of Picasso's house at Mougins, a response to art works
in the same way as one discovers objects and feelings.
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SHE
resembled her portraits: the pretty Arlesian type, a Roman
model with an aquiline nose. This is how Andre Malraux saw her
that morning following Pablo Picasso's death. When he died on
April 8, 1973, in Mougins, his friend the French art critic
and political activist, Andre Malraux was invited by Picasso's
widow, Jacqueline Roque, to have a last look at his
collection. It had snowed unusually on April 10 when his
coffin was brought to a 14th century Chateau Vauvenargues from
Mougins. Though he had bought the chateau, he fell in love
with a small village Mougins some miles from Cannes, deciding
to settle there. It is in the chateau that, surrounded by
Picasso's last paintings 'painted face to face with death' and
his collection, Malraux reminisced his friend's defiant life
and the transmutation of his art. Picasso's Mask is a
defence of modernism where Malraux examines African art that
deeply influenced Picasso. The imperialist scramble for
'savage' cultures had enabled artists like Picasso to
legitimise alternative views reflecting aboriginal impulses
common to all people. Malraux knew him well and recollects the
memorable conversations which conveyed Picasso's sensitivity
to ancient forms. The encounter with his wife is more of a
revelation of Picasso's life, his moods, his likes and
dislikes all emerging from the widow's disconsolate past
permeated with her love for him.
