Picasso, by george she’s got it! (New York MoMA at AGWA, Film Festival)

© The Ponder Room

The night started with Jane Brook wines and Spanish inspired tapas, (think crumbed sardines), before we settled in to watch a performance from Nicola De La Rosa and her guitarist. 

Nicola is a dancer from Danza Viva Spanish Dance Company and with 20 years dancing behind her she’s a great example of how dancing can keep you in shape.

© The Ponder Room

Showing us images of each painting Dr Carboni used an infrared pointer to explain what each painting meant. When he pointed out the painter, the model and the alternative world in between them, in the famous ‘Painter and Model’, a light blub went off .. I got it .. I finally got it. You’d think the title would have given it away, but no. The same thing happened with ‘Night Fishing’ shown above as he explained the middle image fishing and the birds in the top left hand corner.

I’d never got into Cubist paintings. At best I’d blur my eyes, like you do for one of those magic pictures where you try to make out a dolphin or horse. Hearing that Picasso had intended some of his images to cause confusion and feelings of discomfort, was music to my ears. Finally I got it, and can now appreciate the works of this ‘outcast’.

© The Ponder Room

The film that followed was introduced by Martin Scorsese. Born at the same time as film, Picasso and Braque frequently attended the cinema. It chronicled how images first seen in early film found their way into Picasso’s paintings e.g. women fanning themselves. Or how the Cubism images may have been influenced by stilted film images.