Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pre-reading:
1) How do you think the development of the Second World War affected the civil
population?
2) Who was Pablo Picasso?
A Journey through the Exhibition. The War Years
In June 1940 the Germans occupied most of France, while the remainder came under the
control of the collaborationist government of Marshal Philippe Petain, based in Vichy.
Picasso initially retreated to a rented apartment in Royan, a small fishing village on the
Atlantic coast. In 1941 when it too was overrun by Hitler's troops he found himself in a
difficult position. As creator of the worldfamous Guernica, and a fervent Republican, he
was unable to return to Spain. So he made the risky decision to live in Paris for the
duration of the Occupation, despite offers of asylum in the U.S.A. and Mexico.
A sense of fear and claustrophobia gripped the city. Life was characterized by rations,
curfews and bitingcold winters where fuel shortages led to people huddling together in
cafes to keep warm. There was also the chilling presence of the omnipresent Nazis.
Picasso and Dora were constantly receiving news of Jewish friends who had been
deported to concentration camps or tortured for taking part in the Resistance. Dora, in
particular, must have been racked by anxiety as she was a member of the leftist group,
ContraAttaque. It is also believed that she had Jewish parentage.
Despite the fact that Picasso was regarded by the Nazi regime as a degenerate artist and
Guernica had become a symbol of defiance against Fascism he remained free from
persecution. At the time the Nazis were keen not to offend the U.S.A. and it was probably
Picasso's widespread fame that protected him. However, he was denied publicity and
prevented from exhibiting his work, resulting in his disappearance from the world stage.
Some of Picasso's closest friends had been claimed by the Nazis, including the poet Max
Jacob. While some artists colluded with the Germans, he vehemently refused to engage
with them, declining offers of extra food and tours of Germany. According to an anecdotal
account, the Gestapo searched his apartment. During their visit he showed them a black
and white photograph of Guernica. When a German soldier asked him if he had done it,
he replied, "No, it was you!" Picasso's willingness to shelter anyone sent to him from the
Resistance Movement was a further indication of his rebellious attitude.
Determined not to be cowed by the atmosphere of confinement and uncertainty, he
continued to work feverishly, including writing poetry and making portraits and busts of
Dora. In January 1941 he surprised his friends by writing a play entitled Desire Caught
by the Tail, a curious blend of Picasso's biting wit, allusions to Dora, macabre imagery
and the bleakness of wartime Paris that culminates in disappointment for the bizarre
characters obsessed with hunger, cold and love. In 1944 a clandestine reading of the play
was organised, in itself an act of defiance in the face of occupation. This illustrates how
deeply Picasso was embedded in the intellectual and literary circle of the time. The
performance was directed by Albert Camus and the actors included JeanPaul Sartre,
Simone de Beauvoir and Dora.
During the War materials for sculpture were severely limited and Picasso worked with
anything at hand, including pieces of wood, bones, winebottle caps, scraps of paper,
cigarette packets and even a bicycle saddle and handlebars that he used to create a life
like head of a bull. When canvas was not available he painted on planks and hardboard,
or as can be seen in Head of a woman, November 1941, on newspaper where the stark,
black outlines seem to echo the austerity and bleakness of wartorn Paris.
Picasso's insistence on responding to the present rather than working in a strictly
developmental manner is evident in his paintings of the time, which have an eerie sinister
presence. Cat seizing a bird, April 1939, depicts a selfsatisfied cat triumphantly gripping
a defenseless bird, its flesh torn to reveal a gaping wound. It can be read as an evil symbol
of General Franco defeating Madrid in the preceding March.
Head of a woman, 11 June 1940, a grimacing, haunted skull with clenched teeth set
against a background of menacing greys, seems to epitomise the essence of death and the
defeat of France. The grim bronze and copper sculpture Death's head, which cries out
with the same hellish intensity as Edvard Munch's agonized figure in The Scream, 1895,
also does. A spotlight that he borrowed from Dora cast dark shadows at night, encircling
his canvases and setting off every object in Picasso's stilllives. In these the imagery of
the traditional vanitas of the Old Masters is recalled. Pitcher and skeleton, 18 February
1945, and Still life with candle, 21 February 1945, show the ghostly luminescent quality
of the objects emerging from the gloom, evoking dread and foreboding. The works from
this time are images of despair, pouring forth a sense of isolation, fear and introspection,
while at the same time retaining a cynical sense of humor and defiant strength.
In August 1944 as German tanks rolled out of Paris and the city was liberated, Picasso
was visited by a constant stream of friends and admirers, all delighted to discover that he
was still alive. His relief at again experiencing freedom was tempered by the knowledge
that friends in Spain were still prisoners of Franco. In response he joined the French
Communist Party, who, to the surprise of some, allowed him to continue his radical
approach to art rather than insisting he conform to the Social Realism normally associated
with Soviet doctrines. Six weeks after Liberation Picasso was honored by an invitation to
take part in an exhibition of French art at the newly reopened Salon d'Automne.
Regrettably, his works were physically attacked by conservative youths who had been
seduced by rightwing politics during France's Occupation. Police were brought in to
guard the exhibition.
A few months later he exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where his
work from the war years elicited a mixed reaction. Some viewers were taken aback by
the raw, powerful and brutal expression, particularly when compared with the gentle,
lyrical work of Matisse who was also exhibiting at the museum.
Reading activities:
1.- Describe how art gives a voice to the lives and experiences of those touched by
tragedy, conflict or events.
2.- During the Second World War, when materials were scarce, Picasso sometimes had
to rely on the use of recycled materials for his painting and sculpture. Identify and discuss
one of his works that uses these materials.