"For all his prior attention to the nude, the scale and anatomical frankness of the late pictures, in which a Jacqueline-like odalisque is subjected to every manner of scrutiny, is unprecedented. Their increasing sexual explicitness, whether a symptom of sublimated impotence or simply one of modern candor, is just one instance of Picasso's awareness of the radical changes in contemporary art and culture in the late sixties and early seventies."
The excerpt above is from the press materials at Gagosian and touches on the sexual content in the master's paintings, prints and drawings. I read this before I visited the show and although it is pretty strong and very clear, I think it is still understated. When you think that this work was made by a man that died at the age of 91, and that the work is from those final years, you just have to ask, why so much sex, and, how can a person that age be so forceful in their execution? Almost every piece was about sex and if it wasn't about sex it was about art. The surfaces of the larger works, some as big as 76 inches, are attacked violently, as if by the sword of a mosquetero instead of the artist's brush. Thick globs of cream colored paint are ejaculated straight from his tube across wide expanses of canvas. There are breasts, vaginas, cocks and assholes everywhere. But, the deepest orifices are the eye holes. This of course is nothing new for Sr. Picasso as is evident from the following.
Rosenberg had been out of favor with Picasso for having declared that he did not want any more culs (assholes) in the paintings... A Life of Picasso, The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 by John RichardsonI don't know if it's just a coincidence or timed perfectly by the other galleries in Chelsea, but after seeing the Picasso exhibition it seemed like sex was everywhere, in the galleries and on the streets where posters and billboards plastered to every surface around New York use sex to sell, sell, sell.
Although there are quite a few nice examples of the works in MOSQUETEROS on the website, many are either small, because they are from an installation shot, and many others are not shown on the site at all. So you have until June 6 to get to New York and see the show for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
Reviews here.
Other shows that featured nudity and sex that I noticed during the few hours of my visit.
Alice Neel at Zwirner
Chantal Joffe at Cheim Read
Albert Oehlen at Luhring Augustine
Lars Elling at Nicholas Robinson Gallery
Nam June Paik at James Cohan
James Rieck at Lyons Wier Gallery
Weeds poster here
Billboard of Victoria Beckham in Armani Knickers
