Picasso 'stole the work of African artists'

UK Telegraph ^ | 3/12/06 | Stephen Bevan

[wagglebee]

He was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and also one of the most controversial. And now, 33 years after his death, the first significant exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work in South Africa has provoked a furious row after a senior government official accused him of stealing the work of African artists to boost his "flagging talent".

The Picasso and Africa exhibition, which has been drawing capacity crowds at Johannesburg's Standard Bank Gallery, contains 84 original works by Picasso along with 29 African sculptures similar to those in the artist's own collection, and is described as an "innovative dialogue between Picasso's work and his African inspiration".

In an extraordinary intervention, however, a spokesman for the South African Department of Arts and Culture has accused the organisers of deliberately downplaying the debt Picasso owed to African artists.

In a letter to a local newspaper, Sandile Memela, the department's head of communications, wrote: "Today the truth is on display that Picasso would not have been the renowned creative genius he was if he did not steal and re-adapt the work of 'anonymous [African] artists'."

He continued: "There seems to be some clandestine agenda… that projects Picasso as someone… who loved African art so much that he went out of his way to reveal it the world… But all this is a whitewash… he is but one of the many products of African inspiration and creativity who lacked the courage to admit its influence on his consciousness and creativity."

His letter has prompted a furious response, with one correspondent comparing his attitude to the "black fascists who were critical of Paul Simon when he collaborated with Ladysmith Black Mambazo".

Simon worked with the group on his Gracelands album in 1986 and was accused of exploiting them for commercial ends.

Picasso and Simon are not the only artists to have been accused of appropriating African art without giving full credit. Amedeo Modigliani, the Italian sculptor, was also said to have drawn inspiration from African masks.

Although Mr Memela made it clear he was writing in a personal capacity, opposition politicians said they believed he must have had clearance from the minister, Pallo Jordan. Dianne Kohler Barnard, of the Democratic Alliance, described the comments as "facile, party-line sentiments", adding: "I do not believe a spokesman for a ministry would say a thing like that without the tacit approval of the minister."

John Richardson, Picasso's friend and biographer, said the artist would have been upset by the remarks "because he honoured the sculptures and took them very seriously".

He added: "There were four artists - Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Derain - who put tribal art on the map. It was regarded as of no cultural importance but then they started buying it at junk shops and they elevated it to the same importance as Renaissance art."

Although Picasso never visited Africa, his interest in its art is well documented, from his discovery of African masks at the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro in Paris in June 1907. Thereafter he became an avid collector of "art nègre", as it was known.

However, Picasso himself remained ambiguous on the subject, once famously declaring "L'art nègre? Connais pas" - "African art? Never heard of it".

Marilyn Martin, co-curator of the exhibition, said: "Picasso never copied anything, he never stole anything. You can see the influence but there are a combination of influences."

Mr Memela said it was crucial that the debt owed to Africa should be "splashed across the sky" in this "age of African Renaissance" - a reference to President Thabo Mbeki's call for the "rediscovery of Africa's creative past" and the rejection of colonial notions of African culture as inferior to that of the West.

[Republicanprofessor]

You are the only one to post an image....but you know that lovely lady is from the blue or rose periods, from 1901-1906 or so, before the influence of African art.

Now I think the first really obvious influence of African masks in Picasso's work is in the 1907 Demoiselles D'Avignon, a justly famous and shocking work. It would take me forever to really analyze this work, but the women on the right have African masks while the other three have Iberian ones (the same kind of mask that influenced his portrait of Gertrude Stein).

There are so many different kinds of African masks that I can't even find some that relate exactly to Picasso's borrowing of them in his work. The image of masks actually comes from a new museum of African and Oceanic arts in Paris. I wonder if anyone knows just which masks Picasso saw in the basement of the museum a century ago. Derain actually "discovered" them before the others.

[durasell]

Getrude Stein stole her face from african art...

[norton]

"In an extraordinary intervention, however, a spokesman for the South African Department of Arts and Culture has accused the organisers of deliberately downplaying the debt Picasso owed to African artists."

He got his drugs from an African artist??

Who'd of thought.

[Pharmboy]

Yes...I posted the breast feeding work just to be a wise guy.

But, just between you and me, I truly believe that African Americans have had the most profound effect on American (and thus world) art (far beyond Picasso) and do not get much credit at all (just think jazz, blues, rock and roll and all the cascading effects from that in fine art, dance, movies, etc.).

[TET1968]

All true- I became aware of in the early seventies when I was studying West African art. Blatent ripp offs. And don't forget the guy who cast those tall skinny people sculpturs, they were a total ripp off of the stuff being carved in wood from Dogon and Mali. Some of those pieces date back to the the century.

[Republicanprofessor]

You are absolutely right, especially as far as music is concerned. And music has influenced the other arts so very much as well.

[woofie]

[AmishDude]

Godfather 3? Did Shakespeare cast his talentless daughter too?

[pepperdog]

Matters not to me, I don't care for his "art", if I were an African artist I'd be hacked if they compared my work to his. Personally I think most modern art is crap.

[TBall]

Picasso, what an asshole.

[pollyannaish]

"Genius is hiding your sources well." —Albert Einstein

[macrahanish #1]

I thought the Muslims invented everything.
I'm so confused.

[macrahanish #1]

I thought the Muslims invented everything.
I'm so confused.

[Pharmboy]

And what bothers me is that this undeniable fact (ie., the profound influence of African Americans on all forms of art, entertainment and culture post Civil War) is NEVER brought up by black "leaders" or mentioned during Black History Month. I think we need a bit less of George Wsshington Carver and a little more Big Mama Thornton.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Jonathan Richman was certainly wrong.

LOL! Post of the month!

[Sam Cree]

"More interesting is reggae, which borrowed heavily from American popular culture."

I like reggae, Toots and the Maytals in particular.

[Republicanprofessor]

And what bothers me is that this undeniable fact (ie., the profound influence of African Americans on all forms of art, entertainment and culture post Civil War) is NEVER brought up by black "leaders" or mentioned during Black History Month. I think we need a bit less of George Wsshington Carver and a little more Big Mama Thornton.

I'm not sure that is totally true. At least at my college, the month has many fine black cultural events.

But the leaders of the black movement may prefer to emphasize victimology rather than stress independent thinking and creativity, which does not rely upon those very same black leaders.

[Pharmboy]

Perhaps the cultural aspects are indeed emphasized more in the academic environment (and certainly where you are), but in general, they are not. And you hit the nail on the head when you raised the issue of victimology--this is at its root.

[N. Theknow]

[ Picasso 'stole the work of African artists' ]

AH! HA!.. sooo thats why his work looks like it does.. Scratching head.. never could figure what people saw in it..

Picasso the psuedo-RAP artist.. now that expains it..

Picasso; he got brush.

[Rembrandt_fan]

I suppose then, that Whistler 'stole' from the Japanese woodcut artists, and that Michelangelo 'stole' from the Greeks--and what about those dastardly French Impressionists stealing from the Englishman Turner? They're all a pack of thieves, I tell you.

While not a huge Picasso fan (more of a Matisse guy, myself), the South African government embarrasses itself by making such boneheaded statements, revealing a complete ignorance of the artistic dialectic, the way ideas translate across cultures and time.