Picasso and British Artists

Rasha,

I finally had the time today to go see the exhibition of Picasso and British Artists at Tate Britain which opened in February and will be on until July 15th. The exhibition is about Picasso and the influence he had on British artists such as Ben Nicholson, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, David Hockney and a few others.

I have to say that I was really excited to go see the exhibition and I went today and left a bit disappointed. They showed his work from the early 1900s up to the late 1930s and it's really amazing to see the chronology, eventhough this wasn't very evident in the exhibit. Putting his work next to the British artists didn't work really well. You feel that they have tried to copy him but they failed, and it is quite undermining for British artists I felt. Picasso was way ahead of them, they have reproduced their 1920s 'Picasso inspired paintings' in the 1930s when Picasso was already exploring other styles and ideas.

There were some amazing paintings especially by Francis Bacon and David Hockney but it was hard to see the relationship with Picasso.

The only exhibition I have been to and is comparable to this one is Piet Mondrian exhibition in Rome in November last year, where they showed his work alongside other artists of the same era, I find it was more engaging and much clearer.

One of my favourite paintings in the exhibition is 'Head of a Woman' and Picasso's little costume design illustrations that he did for a Diaghilev ballet show in London.

I wish it was a solo Picasso exhibition, it would have probably worked better, but this doesn't mean that it's not worth seeing. Some of the work displayed is just fascinating.

There were a few paintings with the title 'Head of a Woman' and this is one of them
I couldn't find an image on the web of the one that took my breath away!