BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - July 2016

PICASSO: THE ARTIST & HIS MUSES
hiding infidelity behind beauty
Pablo Picasso was a man of many muses.
From the Spanish Civil War to an old
guitarist, his estimated 50,000 works all
came from something. But it is the women in
his life that were his most favoured subjects
and the paintings, drawings, and sculptures
Picasso created in their likeness remain some
of his most famous and valuable works.
While Picasso himself remains in the
spotlight of the art world to this day, these
women are often overlooked. In fact, many
were more than just models. Picasso: The
Artist and His Muses sets out to explore six
of these women, girlfriends, and mistresses
and wives who heavily impacted Picasso’s
work — and were often the subject of some
The Vancouver Art Gallery celebrates Pablo Picasso, exposing the man, the myth and the dirty little secrets.
of his finest creations.
The exhibit moves chronologically through
these periods, starting with model Fernande
Olivier and ending with Picasso’s second
wife, Jacqueline Roque, and features over 60
stunning works that have been curated from
international collections.
The women — the muses — cover the
walls both on and off the canvas. Large
print-screens of the women (and oh, how
they do look different from the cubist depictions)
are accompanied by brief life stories
and descriptions of their associations with
Picasso. Each of the six has a unique place in
Picasso’s life and their stories interweave like
a soap opera. Some paintings clearly express
their subject, while others — of mistresses
Picasso wished to keep secret — have hidden
codes painted or sketched into them to depict
exactly whom it was we were seeing.
If the exhibit comes across as jarring to the
Picasso lover — at least the morally virtuous
ones — they will take solace in the beauty of
the art. It is impossible to realize how Picasso
formed his works until you see them in
person. Studying each line of the pencil, each
slash ink, you realize these are simply scribbles
on a page — yet Picasso digs from these
scribble an uncanny understanding of life.
by Paris Spence-Lang
These are humans without the pretentions.
These truly capture the women that posed for
him so much more than some photoshopped
Vogue cover ever will. (Perhaps it was
Picasso’s ability to see beauty that led him to
constantly cheat on his wives.)
At the end of the exhibition, a small room
houses contemporary artworks that attempt
to raise the question: is that how female
nudes should be presented? The artwork
shows people of indecipherable gender or
males with eminently hairy backsides. These
are new nudes, far removed from Picasso’s
canon, and they force you to step back from
idle idolization to ask —and flail to answer
— a slew of questions: When is it okay for
an artist to overtly sexualize a gender? Is
Picasso’s infidelity excused by his genius?
Picasso: The Artist and His Muses is an
uncomfortable exhibit because of this, and
while the enjoyment of the artwork may be
enhanced by a viewing free from social commentary,
creating social commentary is the
point of art. And that is something Picasso
consistently does, whether he’s painting a
war or a woman.
Picasso: The Artist and His Muses are on display
at the Vancouver Art Gallery until October 2
ALL TOGETHER NOW: VANCOUVER COLLECTORS AND THEIR WORLDS
Rob Frith captures musical moments in time with concert poster collection
by Yasmine Shemesh
that whole saying, a picture says a thousand
words,” says Rob Frith, the owner and
“It is
founder of Neptoon Records, when asked
about his estimated 500,000-strong concert
poster collection. “And with posters, for me, it’s
kind of like that. I like the historic, I’ve always
been into history. The books I only ever read
are historical, usually, and that’s part of it. And I
guess I’m a collector, as well. I just collect things
and I like historic things and I’m a big art fan, so
that’s how it all came about.”
Frith’s posters are featured alongside the
accumulated treasures of 20 other collectors
in All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and
Their Worlds, a new exhibition at the Museum of
Vancouver. It’s a diverse presentation of curiosities,
each of which opens a different window of
the past. Frith’s collection explores Vancouver’s
musical history, as well as reflects the culture
of the times. In fact, it was a couple posters of
San Francisco left behind by Vietnam War draft
dodgers that first captured his attention.
“My dad was in construction and I remember
I used to help him on weekends when I was still
in school,” Frith recalls. In 1967, they went to an
abandoned shack Frith’s father had purchased to
tear down, the inside of which was plastered with
psychedelic pull outs of the Bay Area — likely
memories of home for refuge-seeking Americans.
“And I saw them, right away took them
down, took them home to my bedroom, and stuck
them on the wall,” Frith laughs. Soon after, he
started going to gigs and saving promotional flyers.
He’d grab posters punctured into telephone
poles and ask record shop owners for the prints
from their window displays. A picture of a young
Frith shows him surrounded by concert posters
of touring visitors like the Velvet Underground
and Led Zeppelin, and local artists like Tom
Northcott.
Frith’s main concentration is Vancouver-related
posters from the 1970s or before. The art of
imagery was his attraction early on — pre-computerized
pieces were hand-painted or printed
on cardboard, which echoed the technologies
and trends of the eras. Indeed, Frith explains,
sometimes it is that iconic image that contributes
to a band’s legacy and it’s a mutually beneficial
relationship between artist and musician in
terms of exposure. One of his favourite pieces is
a re-issue he did of a Grateful Dead poster done
by iconic concert poster illustrator Bob Masse.
Frith reached out to the band for approval and
the Dead gave their blessing — they loved that
particular poster and even had it hung in their
office. Frith and Masse then together published
a limited edition of 1,000 copies. “We did it and it
turned out beautifully,” Frith says, adding that the
expensive paper was so porous they had to run it
through the printer twice because the ink would
just soak up.
Collectors, as a rule, are passionate people.
The urge to hunt and gather is driven by an
appetite for something that, in turn, becomes an
extension of the collectors themselves — part of
their identity. For Frith, as an admirer of music,
art, and history, concert posters are a marriage
of all the things he loves. They are, quite simply,
who he is.
Now, Frith mostly looks for things worth
preserving for their historical significance or
for something he doesn’t have. “One poster I’ve
always wanted and I’ve never been able to find
and I don’t know if it exists was Bill Haley and the
Comets at the Kerrisdale Arena,” he says, referring
to the 1956 concert. “It was the first rock and
roll show in Vancouver and I’ve had people tell
me that they saw a poster of it, but I’ve just never
seen an image of it. I’ve seen ads in the paper
Rob Frith and others like him open the door to their prized collections.
[and that] kind of a thing, but I’ve never actually
seen a poster — and that would just make my
day, if I could find that.”
All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and
Their Worlds is on display at the Museum
of Vancouver now until January 8, 2017
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