UN Report: The Picasso Cover-Up (More Fodder For the Loony Left)

The Washington Times ^ | February 3, 2003 | Betsy Pisik

[Timesink]

A tapestry of Pablo Picasso's powerful anti-war tableau "Guernica" has hung outside the U.N. Security Council since 1985, and it would be difficult to imagine a more fitting example of site-specific art.

The original 1937 painting depicts the terrorized and dying civilians at Guernica, a small Basque village in northern Spain that Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalist regime, battling the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, allowed the German air force to use for target practice. About 1,600 civilians were killed or wounded in three hours of bombardment.

[Timesink]

Needless to say, the unwashed hair crowd is already screaming "Bush conspiracy!"

[Age of Reason]

Pablo Picasso's powerful anti-war tableau "Guernica"

I've seen it.

I understand it.

And it's crap.

[jd777]

Oh?

[nopardons]

Yes, it's utter garbage !

[Age of Reason]

Picasso knew what he was about: He was a mediocre painter in a world bored with real art.

He had no chance to do it right.

He knew that if he behaved eccentrically, fools with nothing new to look at, would look at his weirdo crap and think his garbage profound.

[denydenydeny]

But the point is, the left hammered John Ashcroft over the bogus story where he draped a nude statue. So where is the outrage over the UN doing this? Oh, that's right, we'll just find a way to blame this on the Bush administration.

[Int]

U.N. officials said last week that it is more appropriate for dignitaries to be photographed in front of the blue backdrop ... than the impressionist image of shattered villagers and livestock.

If you didn't know what it was supposed to represent it isn't as bad as it sounds...

[Rifleman]

In fact, Picasso was an enormously talented painter and a badly flawed man who let his faults overwhelm his virtues. A total cinic, he was quoted as saying that he could shit in a jar and sell it as great art. Probably a true statement. He generated masses of dreck, motivated mostly by the money.

Look at some of his early work. As a youth, his technical skill is striking. He was seduced by the "Modern" art movement and cash.

[Age of Reason]

A total cinic, he was quoted as saying that he could shit in a jar and sell it as great art.

As I said, he knew what he was doing (some Italian artist, a few years back, was canning his own feces and calling it art; it just took a few decades down the path that Picasso started us on to get us to that point.)

And I have seen some of Picasso's early works; as I have said, he was a mediocre painter in a world bored with art.

Being bored with good art is no reason to turn art upside-down because you're bored with looking at it right-side up. Art has limits, and when too much of it gets boring, people should find something else to do with their eyes.

[eaglebeak]

Very good question.

CURTAINS At the entrance of the United Nations Security Council chamber, a baby blue curtain has been placed over a ruglike copy of "Guernica," Pablo Picasso's powerful antiwar painting. Picasso's depiction of the horrors of war, given by the estate of Nelson A. Rockefeller, who donated the money for the United Nations compound, hung at a site where it often provided a background to televised interviews with ambassadors and other officials. On Jan. 27, when Hans Blix, the chief United Nations chemical and biological weapons inspector, was to appear, microphones were repositioned to accommodate expanded press coverage, diplomats discussing peace were placed in front of Picasso's image. Speaking of the blue curtain and member flags that now decorate the area, Fred Eckhard, press secretary of the United Nations, said, "It is an appropriate background for the cameras."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/arts/05ABRF.html?ex=1045198800&en=bc7a5d34ce8c1b0a&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE