Picasso 'stole the work of African artists'

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

[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.