Picasso was a terrible human being. I can’t look at his paintings or consider any of his allegedly important works without thinking of all the women he destroyed. The works that made him famous and allegedly important were done by being insanely cruel to women. He became rich in the process. At least two of his lovers ended themselves. He kidnapped one, and locked many unwilling ones in his studio. As he got older they got younger and younger. At one point, he adopted a very young girl to use in his nude sketches. She was returned to the convent from where she came when he was done with her. He enjoyed prostitutes, probably because his first experience was with one. Even if you do superficial searches, you will be shocked at how much information is out there. It’s not a secret. Yet, students are shown his work, visitors see his paintings in museums, and most of them are completely unaware that they are looking at a tapestry of sexual deviancy and exploitation.

Years ago when I attended NWACC, a professor really loved a complicated thing I drew that I titled “Elvis Angel.” It was an intricate and preposterous mess but very interesting. Another student said, “It’s like Picasso with pens and pencils.” She didn’t understand when I said, “Thank you. But I don’t know if it’s monstrously sexual enough for that comparison.” The professor asked me about my comment. She was a very engaging and educated professor who enjoyed my nonsense. Even though I didn’t know a lot about Picasso at the time, I told her that he was a monster. It shocked her because despite her education, she had never heard anything like that. After our conversation, she spent time looking it up, just as she had done when I pointed out something related to employment law that she was unaware of.

Even the painting in this post seems innocuous. But if you know what it really depicts, it’s difficult to look at it in the same way. And if you know the woman’s story, the one used in the painting, you can feel nothing except disgusted and sorry that her path intersected with Picasso.

I love history and trivia. This is not one of those cases wherein people take things out of context against the backdrop of history. This is one of those cases where the behavior of the person involved would be universally reviled if it were known.

X