PLAY LIST

5/2/11

"Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou

http://ArtChick1.blogspot.com

I'M IN LOVE WITH HIM AGAIN...

photo: Gogasian gallery website

At the exit of "Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou" is an excerpt from a letter the artist wrote to his mistress and model Marie-Thérèse Walter in 1936. Rather than refer to her by name, Picasso interlocked the M and T of her first name to create a sign that functions as both monogram and symbol: "I see you before me my lovely landscape MT," Picasso wrote, "and never tire of looking at you, stretched out on your back in the sand, my dear MT I love you. MT my devouring rising sun. You are always on me, MT mother of sparkling perfumes pungent with star jasmines. I love you more than the taste of your mouth, more than your look, more than your hands, more than your whole body, more and more and more and more than all my love for you will ever be able to love and I sign Picasso."
"...Yet "L'Amour Fou" isn't merely a series of portraits or variations on a theme. The exhibition is an impassioned visual love letter, a poem from an artist to his model, mistress, muse and obsession—his l'amour fou, or "mad love." And it proves that the subject of Picasso, no less than that of love, is inexhaustible." WSJ

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