The analytical catalogue is more a parade of people than of images, however it’s useful in documenting the extent and glamour of Picasso’s circle – a who’s who of the intelligentsia of the first half of the 20th century. But Picasso’s formalism was offset by a strong figurative urge that centred on folks known to the artist, especially friends and lovers. The reductive linear fashion typically seems forbidding and fearsome, however the rawness and distortions enhance the mystique of the fashions if you realise who they’re. Until this exhibition of a hundred and eighty works, I had by no means quite appreciated why artists of Picasso’s technology have been so eager on portraiture.
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