Picasso&Elenarede: BodiesMatter
Extended through January 2025
The Matter. A salient determinant in signifying an artwork. Shaped into form, animated by soul and becoming Bodies. Soul and body becoming inseparable through the never-ending process of creation.
Two master artists, Pablo Picasso and Elenarede, each using matter to determine the meaning of their artworks. Pablo Picasso cutting linoleum to achieve a more direct and intimate contact with the piece of artwork. Linocuts produced without the intervention of the printer, leaving the Artist alone with his work, as if he was a painter or a sculptor. Elenarede reinventing and taking to the limit the use of bronze and natural earth, reinterpreting the anthropological core of the primitive alchemic process of giving life and soul to otherwise inert material. Lump of lifeless metal or earth shaped into sublime living forms.
Through different approaches and styles, figurative and abstract, realistic and perceptive, melting dream and life, these two master Artists invite to breath into the true nature of being an individual and into the intimate meaning of the creative process of giving life, as expressed in the most ancient mythological and religious literature, from the Genesis onwards. Thanks to their art, the profound interconnections between the physics and spiritual aspects of human existence come afloat.
“…the soul is the form of the body, granting its nature and determining its characteristics”.
Aristotle, De anima
Picasso and the linocuts.
FINEHEARTH is proud to present a selection of 20 prints, chosen from the around 100 linogravures produced by Pablo Picasso between 1959 and 1962.
Originally printed from linoleum by Hidalgo Arnera for the Gallerie Louise Leiries, Paris, in an edition of 50, upon initiative of Charles Feld, director of Cercle d’Arc, in 1962 the linocuts were reproduced in a smaller size, maintaining the design and the appearance of the originals, with the support of the German Publisher Verlag Gerd Hatje in Stuttgart. An edition of 400 was later printed in Germany, in France by Cercle d’Art, in America by Harry Abrams and in Spain by Gustavo Gili.
In 1964, persuaded by Renato Guttuso, the Italian Publisher Il Saggiatore, Firenze, printed an edition of 400. The prints here presented originate from such edition.Works exhibited
The first attempt to obtain the desired effect, using one single sheet of material. Three colours used together for the first time, starting in the realization from the lighter yellow, continuing with the brown ochra and completing the work with the black. To facilitate the experiment, Picasso chose a familiar subject, with almost no figurative innovation.
The first essay on bullfights, a familiar geography for the artist, instrumental to his experiments on linoleum, the subtly submissive material. Two colours, yellow and red in a positive-negative relation, astonishingly harmonic and homogeneous in the print.Picasso, Pablo, 1959
Pica con matador al quite
linocut, cm 53x64Ochre, reddish-brown, violet-brown, black
Cat. n. 6
The second representation of a bullfight, apparently similar to the first (Cat. n. 5) but with a different chromatic resolution, with black taking over red, for a plastically cubistic representation.
The four-colour setup epitomize the drama: the scene is vivid and dynamic and the movement is pervaded by the urgent prevail of death over life. The artistic resolution of the drama stands out in the abstract lines depicting the blood flowing on the back of the bull.
The first of the two monochrome representations of the picador, replicating the traits of a pen superimposing black lines on a brown background.
The second monochrome of the picador, where a woman is brought to stage. The pen strokes are nervous and interrupted in a growing wave of indefinition breaking into an unresolved emotional climax.
A masterful demonstration of translating matter into materialistic formality. A successful attempt to play popular tunes hugging the soul, stepping down from the drama inherent to bullfights.Picasso, Pablo, 1959
Suonatore di chitarra e donna seduta in poltrona
linocut, cm 53x64Ochre, brown, black
Cat. n. 14
A superb proof of using matter to attain sublime expressiveness. Light, mild strokes dissenting from the darkness of a shadowed background and culminating in the blond, curled hair of the beloved woman. The shattered window completes the idyllic atmosphere hinting intimacy and the promise of a happy end.
In this highly remarkable work, Picasso reveals as a master of resolving contrasting emotions; the picador losing his identity as the pica breaks and the bull losing his life as the fight approaches end. The contrast with the calm and distant expression of the horse, underlines the drama.
The epic and poetry of the interaction between men and women in the drama of the bullfight, is here presented by an archetype of Picasso: the woman close to the toreador, wrapped in her mantilla. His beloved Jacqueline is here represented in a psychological transfer, where the artist plays the toreador.
A sculptured reprise of the sublime expressiveness of the picador and the woman: mild lines, yellowish quick curved to frame the erotic black strokes. The sensual atmosphere is heightened by the third woman preparing behind the open curtains.
This monochrome, realized in 1959, stands out for technique of realization: quick strokes, bold characters, a dionysian subject, a lively nature, open landscape, simple chromatism for one of the most original prints of the edition.
Possibly, one of the finest outcomes outcomes of graphic decorativeism in the history of engraving. A masterful use of the colours, interlaced into a pure Mozartian harmony.Picasso, Pablo, 1959
Madre col bambino, ballerino e suonatore di flauto
linocut, cm 63.5x53Ochre, brown, black
Cat. n. 26
Three dancing figures, three colours. A simple solution to brighten a joyful dancer, against a brownish background. The visionary use of black to represent a mother and her child and the flute player, remain in the annals of the history of printingPicasso, Pablo, 1959
Baccanale con capra
linocut, cm 52.5x63.5Dark ochre, blue, green, black
Cat. n. 28
The rich polychromy of one of the few prints realized in four colours. The depth of the space is obtained by the superimposition of three layers, each with its own dominant colour: the white of the clouds, the green of the mountains, the blue of the lake, the ochre for the characters and the goat.Picasso, Pablo, 1959
Baccanale con quattro nuvole
linocut, cm 52.5x63.5Blue, ochre, green, black
Cat. n. 30
Picasso, Pablo, 1959
Baccanale con capra e gufo
linocut, cm 53x64Black, brown (Caput mortuum)
Cat. n. 33
Elenarede and the bodies.
A selection of superb artworks of Elenarede, widely acclaimed as one of the most eclectic and refined sculptress in the world. Revealing her most intimate vocation, Elenarede masters an art made of sophisticated blends of rare natural materials to distill the purest gist of the Spirit and the truest essence of a figuration coloured with a kaleidoscopic variety of archetypal reminiscences that blurs the boundaries of time and space, insinuating a fragrance of infinitude and imperishability. The artworks here exposed, all unique pieces, belong to the FINEHEART collection.
Works exhibited
Era dea
cm 52x25x25lamiera di rame martellata, terre, oro e resina su base specchio
