Picasso and his Women
Review of the Lecture:
Picasso led a very tumultuous life, with several women who acted as his muse at different, often overlapping times, and who all became his victims in the way he discarded them. He married two of the women, and also had a large number of more casual affairs, including frequent visits to brothels. Picasso stated that to understand his art, you have to see how it mirrors his life. He started his career as an excellent draughtsman, and then became a more abstract artist in a variety of styles. He was inspired by the women, but also used them shamelessly. This lecture was well-illustrated to show Picasso’s thinking at different times. It was commented that Picasso treated women as “goddesses or doormats”, and several never really recovered from his time with them.
Our lecturer, Val Woodgate, explained very well what we are seeing in Picasso’s work at different times, as well as giving brief biographies of his lovers as well as of Picasso himself. Val explained very well the rather tumultuous intertwined lives, greatly increasing the understanding of Picasso’s art for all his audience.
- Professor Robert Gurney
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picasso told his biographer, John Richardson, that his work was like a diary – “To understand it, you have to see how it mirrors my life”. This lecture examines the way Picasso’s emotional life influenced what he painted and how he painted it. His response to each new love in his life can be seen in the different styles in which his many women were represented. When he fell out of love, that fact would be revealed first in his paintings. The lecture concentrates on the seven most important women in his life (two of whom he married).
Val Woodgate is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, also at many other London Galleries and for various art organisations. She is a former member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
She is a lecturer to The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) throughout Britain, and to related organisations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. She also lectures and runs courses at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.
