Picasso Targeted for Cancellation on 50th Anniversary of His Death
He may have been the most important artist of the last century, but Pablo Picasso is not exempt from cancel culture. Half a century after the revered Spanish painter and sculptor died, there are calls for the “monstrous misogynist” and “cultural appropriator” to be be censored.
Picasso exhibitions in Paris (until August 27th) and Brooklyn (June 2nd to September 24th) are set to become battlegrounds in this debate.
The Guardian has compiled a range of views about the artist, including that of art critic Eliza Goodpasture:
Picasso’s brand of greatness is characterised by loudness, scale, grit, originality, celebrity and overall shock-and-awe value. It is also distinguished by a macho, lusty masculinity. His notorious cruelty and misogyny are arguably as famous as his paintings. Picasso’s life and art were made possible by the work of women: his wives and mistresses who cared for him and organised his life, and of course the models and muses who fill his paintings. These women could not have stood where he stood behind the canvas, in brothels and bars and on battlefields, thinking of nothing but work. The lurid radicality of his art rests on a wanton disregard for the humanity of the women he painted and slept with.
Even as other ‘great artists’ are beginning to be held to account, Picasso has clung on to his status as the most important, and most famous, artist of the 20th century. Genius transcends misogyny, apparently. It is impossible to separate Picasso’s work from his life, and equally impossible to escape the legacy of his enormous oeuvre. But we can escape the narrow definition of ‘great’ that limits the history of art to men like Picasso.
The canon is not fixed and unchangeable: it is constantly being re-evaluated. What if great art included work that is subtle, nuanced, quiet, small, challenging and complicated? Imagine if a great artist could be any gender, any race – or even a person who valued the humanity of others. Who else might be a household name?
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Art is an expression of the human spirit and it transcends personality . We used to have religion which could expunge human weakness , but in the absence of the confessional , we have taken on the responsibility for judgement , which has led us into the dark alley of Cancellation . We have no business there !
This could perhaps be turned into Pic History Month or something like this — come here if all you care about is dead people’s sex lives. I might be able to cook up some interest in paintings of Picasso (slight chance, though). I emphatically don’t want to know which way he hung his loo rolls or any other details about his private live people with yellow press mindset can get endlessly infatuated with, no matter much trouble they have understanding this.
When two remote-wielding postmodernists cancel each other simultaneuosly, the outcome will be a refreshing silence and no one will ever be worse because it.
More of the same:
Men bad. Women good.
Woman victim, man aggressor.
Apparently women never have any agency or responsibility for bad situations.
And suggesting women actually have agency is misogyny apparently.
Can’t you let go of this once? This a woman. She’s (I certainly didn’t read the article) apparently at a loss what to write about Picasso’s paintings but very well informed about the stains on his bedsheets, something she cares much more about, anyway. Therefore, she writes about the latter instead and sprinkles that with a generous dose of boilerplate Guardian-editoral-style SJW preaching. She hasn’t been elected global representative of women (this is not political party, BTW, but a descriptive term applying to a certain kind of people) and isn’t speaking for anyone but herself. She doesn’t seem to have much to say about anything and hence, just provides another good reason for not reading the Guardian.
LOL, well said. I think certain people’s lives are basically just one, never-ending psychotic episode because, whenever there’s an article remotely touching on gender, there they are, as predictable as night follows day. Truly unnatural and an indicator of somebody in dire need of psychiatric input because they are clearly abnormal in their behaviour. Attention-seekers never sit well with me anyway..
I haven’t clicked on the article because it strikes me as tosh and I really have no clue or interest in Picasso’s private life. I’m much more of a Dali fan, personally.
I like Botticelli, Constable and Vincent van Gogh. As opposed to something like a cow in *preservative or something – if there is such a thing?
*Can’t spell formaldehyde.
I’ll say this, this is definitely not a site I would expect to be asked to shut up and keep my.opinion to myself.
I completely agree with your opinion on this topic. When feminism 2.0 started to become fashionable, I made a brief attempt at informing myself about what’s supposedly the issue and soon hit some rant about how it would be my duty to know this already because it wouldn’t be the role of women to teach men about it. I then thought “Ok, you can’t be arsed to argue in favour of your opinion and – unsurprisingly – I care even less about it, so g’day madam, I’ll be on my way.” and matter stands there since then.
OTOH, I cannot honestly complain (and I do complain about that) about inappropriate generalizations like male violence and then make the same hasty generalizations about people employing such phrases. And that’s the point of my criticism of your statement: There are about 4 billion women on this planet and the by far overwhelmingy majority of them don’t even know about this topic, let alone agree with this standpoint, which seems by-and-large to be one of embittered spinsters. They’re entitled to their opinions. And I’m entitled not to give a hoot about that.
”You’ll notice I don’t bring up women or feminism in any other context other than the trans problem. So, no, despite your insistence I am not a misogynist.”
Really Stewart? Is the Picasso article posing as a trans issue now? Read my reply to RW about having a psychotic episode. Your reality is so warped and self-awareness so thoroughly lacking that you trip yourself up and expect others not to notice. And I’ve yet to hear a misogynist declare that they are a misogynist. Just saying it might be time for a little mental health check methinks..
Oh ok, so on this occasion I made an exception. Well done for spotting it.
The comment is still basically correct.
I think feminism is toxic and has ruined society. I couldn’t care less about it until recently, but since it has spun off radical trans ideology I have begun to care.
You bang on and on and on about jabs and jab injuries because you care. Good for you. Do you expect to be called psychotic because you make basically the same comments over and over again in whatever new context is presented to you? No.
Stop being so intolerant and argue the point rather than the person.
Eliza Goodpasture eh? That’s a name to conjure with. An art critic too. Apparently. I rather think not. Clearly this lady has a grossly over-inflated opinion of her own intelligence and worth. “The lurid radicality of his art rests on a wanton disregard for the humanity of the women he painted and slept with.” Oh does it? Could you please explain the connection? I wonder if Goodpasture could provide some specifics to confirm the humanity of the women Picasso painted. Actually does their humanity matter? “Even as other ‘great artists’ are beginning to be held to account, Picasso has clung on to his status as the most important, and most famous, artist of the 20th century. Genius transcends misogyny, apparently.” And what the hell has misogyny got to do with genius? The details of the private lives of artists hold a lurid fascination for many of us but in terms of critiquing a work of art they hold little relevance. The works of Shakespeare periodically come under review on the grounds that he did not author them but what is the relevance? Are the works themselves demeaned because the author is in doubt? Are the surviving art works of the… Read more »
The Guardianistas need to go to the UN and be given a large tract of land where they can create a new country. Then all the left wing activists in the world can move there with their families. They can be technocratic, anti-slavery, anti-colonial, fossil fuel free and create their utopia. Meanwhile everyone else in the world can go about their business.
What a bloody good idea.
They want to stay here though for the anticipated power, influence and money.
Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls.
Picasso was married, had mistresses and painted women, which seems like he loved women, as any red blooded male would. I’m struggling with this misogyny thing?
A lot of comments here are based simply on the assumption that the article isn’t worth reading because it’s from the Guardian – a commitment which some commenters have honoured precisely by not reading it, and saying so. Don’t get me wrong – I have a lot of sympathy with that reaction – trembling with pre-confrontation nerves as I always am when [insert name of almost any friend/relation here] sends me a Guardian article to read. But I did read this one, and for once it didn’t have me reaching for my revolver in order to end myself or…or someone…anyone! But actually this article isn’t of that order, for a change, and I can’t help thinking that Ian Macleod might be erring on the ‘populist’ side here with his headline referring to the imminent ‘cancellation’ of one of the greatest artists of all time. The Guardian article Macleod refers to (by Alex Needham) starts with a reference to the fact that Picasso’s reputation has “nosedived” – but Needham doesn’t himself seem to be encouraging that nosedive. On the contrary, the overall tone of the article – given that three out of four of the contemporary artists he goes on to… Read more »
A damn fine response.👍
Eliza Goodpasture:
George Orwell:
Aah Pablo; at least he knew what a woman was….
Message to false prophets of WOKE: Judge not, that ye be not judged.
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