The Picasso Effect

There are a thousand reasons to travel. Everyone has their own reasons, their own desires, and passions and they try, on every trip, to find what they like. Nature, landscape, history, architecture, cuisine, drink, fun... art. Some of the reasons we travel.

For art lovers travel can bring great satisfaction and pleasure. Festivals, concerts, museums... Museums are an important reason to travel!

When you say Pablo Picasso you think of one of the world's greatest painters. An innovator who had an immense influence on universal painting.

The fact that a big museum in Bucharest, the city where I live, organized a big Picasso exhibition was a big surprise and joy for me and for most of the people in the city.

In Bucharest, there are many museums but very few works by Picasso. For a painting enthusiast, the only option is to travel to France or Spain to admire the paintings of this great artist. I have missed traveling to these countries and that is why I consider myself more than lucky that 50 drawings, lithographs, and paintings by Picasso have been brought to Bucharest by the Museum of Recent Art-MARe, which organized the exhibition The Picasso Effect. An exhibition to give the Romanians the opportunity to be in front of some of Picasso's paintings but also to exemplify the influence of the great Spanish painter on Romanian painters.

The Picasso effect, such as it was!

Picasso was a prolific painter. Thousands of paintings, tens of thousands, if you can believe that. It is estimated that he painted more than 50,000 paintings (I think, though, that the drawings and graphics are added together, not just the paintings).

A great diversity. A diversity also in this exhibition...

I begin the presentation of the exhibits with a drawing. Pencil drawing on lithographic paper transferred on stone (!). I don't know what that means.

Drawing

It's called... Composition with a skull

Linocut

A technique that consists of printing an image on a linoleum board and then multiplying it. Similar to etching but much more affordable. Linoleum is a cheap and easy material to get hold of and it was with this technique that Picasso made posters for cultural events in Paris, especially in the interwar period.

Fauns and Goat

Couple and Flautist on a Lake Shore

Lithographs

Similar to linography, except that the base plate on which it is drawn is a metal plate, in this case, zinc. Then the drawing is transferred onto sheets of paper. Lithography has been used by many artists, but Picasso stood out from all of them because of the colors he used and his innovations. Inspiration from ancient painting, from naive painting... to me, it gives the impression of movement. Eyes all over the face and arms all in a knot...

Women in an Armchair

Painting

Finally, oil on the canvas. Classic painting, even if not classic here, is innovative and exciting. Shocking. An example of a Picasso painting that I love and am happy to have had the chance to see up close!

Seated Woman with Folded Arms

It is now my favorite painting. Because it's about the sea, and not just any sea, the Mediterranean at Cannes. And Cannes is important to me because of the famous film festival. The Côte d'Azur! All of this has been put into one painting. Sea, boats, waves, islands, and forests. The city and the palm trees... and many more I didn't notice. How I'd love to have this painting on my wall at home!

Cannes Bay

Each painting must be seen, understood, and commented on. That means a special exhibition, maybe one in a lifetime.

Romanian painters influenced by Picasso

I said at the beginning that this exhibition wanted to show how Picasso influenced painters in Romania. I was not interested in this aspect. I was extremely pleased that I had the opportunity to look closely at original paintings by this "monster" of painting, of the visual arts.

However, to respect the theme, I also put two paintings by Romanian painters where you can see the inspiration after Picasso.

Alma Redlinger

Kadar Tibor

Next, I put Picasso's paintings back together with the label from the exhibition. Unfortunately, I wasn't careful when I photographed the labels and they didn't turn out very well. I only noticed this at home, when I couldn't fix anything. It remains as an experience and a reminder to be more careful at the next exhibition.

If someone arrives in the area, i.e. in Bucharest, and is an art lover and, more than that, is eager to see some of Picasso's paintings up close, then a few forays are necessary.

MARe is easy to find. It is located in the north of Bucharest, close to the Triumphal Arch and Herastrau Park. You can see it on the map!

The Picasso Effect exhibition is open until 8 January 2024.

Monday-Sunday: 10-20 (Tuesday: closed)

Ticket price $ 22
The ticket price for groups (5 people) is $ 15 for each