Maya. Exhibition at Musée Picasso

 

Maya au bateau (Maya with boat) 1938  private collection

Picasso had four children with his numerous wives and girlfriends. Maya was his first daughter by Marie-Thérèse Walter, a young woman he met by chance outside the Galeries Lafayette store in 1927. Picasso was 45; Marie-Thérèse was 17. 

Guitare à la main blanche (Guitar with white hand) 1927. Private collection

Picasso disguised his new mistress and model in such paintings as the above, where Marie-Thérèse Walter's initials appear on the guitar. Later she appeared in her full beauty:

Portrait of Marie-Thérèse 1935 Pencil. Private collection

Her gymnastic body was sometimes transformed into rocks and boulders in beach scenes by Picasso, while her distinctive 'Greek' profile and blonde youth is recognizable in several works:

Portrait de Marie-Thérèse 1937 oil and pencil

When Maya's imminent birth was discovered by Olga, Picasso's Russian ballet dancer wife, the turmoil caused led to their separation. 

Maya became a beloved model for her father.

Première Neige (First Snow) 1938  private collection

Picasso's inventive mixing of chalk, charcoal and oilpaint creates the effect of pastel. 

Picasso's first daughter was given the same name as his own sister who had died aged 2 - Maria de la Concepciòn, shortened to Maya. She was born in September 1935. During the second world war period Picasso created make-shift toys for her out of recuperated materials, left-overs from his studio. Some of these are on show. 

Father and daughter's complicity is evident in Maya's notebooks where both she and Picasso drew and gave each other marks out of ten for their drawings. Picasso painted Maya in many guises:

Maya en costume marin (Maya in a sailor suit) 1938  (MOMA, New York)

The artist expresses the joy of childhood. Picasso has signed his name on Maya's beret, claiming paternity for his work and for Maya. How banal is Picasso's father, Don José's work by comparison!

Palomar (Pigeon loft) by José Ruiz-Blasco 1878

A similar work gave rise to the famous incident when young Pablo Picasso finished painting the pigeons' feet... José  was so admirative of his son's painting that he is supposed to have given Pablo his palette and brushes, exclaiming that the pupil had surpassed the master. Knicknamed  'El Palomero',  Don José never knew success as an artist.

José Ruiz-Blasco, artist's father (1895)

Picasso's portrait of his father was done when he was only 14 years old and the family were living in La Coruña. His mastery of light effects is impressive at such a young age. The portrait forms part of the new Maya Donation of 2021 which has given rise to the present exhibition.

Maya, now aged 77, has added 9 important works to the Picasso Museum's collection. The 9 works- 6 paintings, 2 sculptures and a sketchbook- span Picasso's long career. One is not by him:

Tiki, from Marquesas Islands 19th C Wood, traces of paint

The above artefact was part of Picasso's collection, inspiring him with its schematized forms, its trunk-like legs and hands held out like shovels, in the typical style of the Tiki figures from Polynesia.
Picasso's Dada or Surrealist period is exemplified by the work below:

Picasso called it "La Venus du gaz" Cooker burner. 1945. People might say "Anyone could do that- just turn a gas burner vertically". True, but Picasso DID it! Just as Marcel Duchamp turned a gentleman's urinal round and called it "Fountain". A copy of the outrageous Duchamp is on display, next to Picasso's "Gas burner Venus".

The museum collection has also been enriched by Picasso's Surrealist vision of a child with a lollipop sitting under a chair:

Painted in 1938 by the master, using only black and white oil paints, the child's body is constricted in a pyramid shape which echoes the lozenge of the lollipop. The use of  only grey, black and white gives drama to the scene. These are the same colours Picasso had used in painting "Guernica", the previous year.

El Bobo (The idiot boy) 1959

Displayed next to a jocular club-footed gypsy by Ribera, lent by the Louvre, is another work from the Maya donation. It is possibly a comical rendering of his son Claude (aged 12 at the time); Picasso jokingly puts the eggs (los huevos) in the appropriate place! It is an astonishing work- funny and bold and touching.

Jocular too, is Picasso's take on Manet's "Bathing Party":

This is just one of the drawings contained in a precious sketchbook, donated to the museum.

A powerful work on display, from the last period of Picasso's life, is an oil painting of a man's head:

Tete d'homme, (Head of a man) Mougins 1971 

With its dynamic lines and bright colours, the work is full of rhythm. The man stares at the observer in a challenging way. 

Emilie Marguerite Walter (dite "Mémé") 1939

Seen at the beginning of the exhibition is his portrait of Mémé, or "Nana" - Maya's kindly-looking grandmother. One amazing thing with Picasso is that though he distorts his figures, yet most of the time they still look like his subject! It's all part of the Picasso mystique.

"Maya Ruiz-Picasso, daughter of Picasso", Exhibition at the Musée National Picasso,

5 rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris    Metro: St Paul/ St Sébastien Froissart

Until 31st December, 2022

Open from 10.30am to 6pm from Tuesday to Friday and from 9.30 am on Saturdays and Sundays. 

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