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Lot Essay
Picasso had a voracious visual appetite and sought and found inspiration anywhere, from the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians to Tribal and Folk Art and the Old Masters of Europe, such as Rembrandt, El Greco or Velazquez. He unashamedly quoted the styles and compositions of the art of the past, thereby often radically modernizing them and making them his own. It was in this spirit that in 1963, having just explored, reinvented and finally mastered the technique of colour linocut printing, that he turned to a genre, which at the time - after impressionism and his own cubist experiments - must have felt rather stale and old-fashioned: the still-life.
In its composition and selection of elements – a ledge or table, some apples, a glass – Nature morte au verre sous la lampe is in its sparseness and simplicity very much in the Spanish, rather than in the more opulent and ostentatious Netherlandish tradition. Yet by introducing another element, a ceiling lamp with a modern light bulb, Picasso transforms the subject into something altogether different and entirely contemporary. No longer is this a quiet, melancholic still-life, exploring the subtleties of natural shapes and hues. It is a celebration of saturated colours, bold shapes – and artificial light. Picasso thus breathes life into an old and tired genre and resuscitates it for generations to come. Created when the artist was past his eightieth year, Nature morte au verre sous la lampe would not look dated, or any less radical, next to the screenprints of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, who in 1963 were just stepping onto the stage.
In its composition and selection of elements – a ledge or table, some apples, a glass – Nature morte au verre sous la lampe is in its sparseness and simplicity very much in the Spanish, rather than in the more opulent and ostentatious Netherlandish tradition. Yet by introducing another element, a ceiling lamp with a modern light bulb, Picasso transforms the subject into something altogether different and entirely contemporary. No longer is this a quiet, melancholic still-life, exploring the subtleties of natural shapes and hues. It is a celebration of saturated colours, bold shapes – and artificial light. Picasso thus breathes life into an old and tired genre and resuscitates it for generations to come. Created when the artist was past his eightieth year, Nature morte au verre sous la lampe would not look dated, or any less radical, next to the screenprints of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, who in 1963 were just stepping onto the stage.