Picasso, the minotaur that some French feminists want to dehorn
Picasso art, at the school where he was a wayward genius
Italian experts have brought to light what they consider to be
a probable work by Picasso
, with which the Spanish artist wanted to pay homage to his friend , also a German painter
Paul Klee
, and in which
the dictator Adof Hitler is represented in a caricatured manner
and now they hope that its authenticity can be verified.
Annalisa Di Maria
, an art expert and member of the committee of experts in Art and Literature at the Unesco Center in Florence
, who recently presented the work, has assured that "currently the work cannot be attributed with certainty to
Picasso
and that the painting will certainly have to be investigated further", but in his opinion
there is no doubt that it is a work by the painter from Malaga.
For Di Maria, it is
a painting that Picasso gave to Klee
, one of the artists most persecuted by the German regime, although it is not found in any of the catalogs of
stolen or seized works
in what they called "degenerate art", especially since it was a "very uncomfortable" painting because it was about ridiculing the figure of the
Führer
and
it was better to keep it hidden.
Klee and Picasso
were friends and had mutual admiration for each other and met at least twice, so much so that in 1914 Klee made a work to
pay homage to Picasso
and it is believed that the Spanish painter wanted to replace it with this painting, which now belongs to a
private collection of an Italian family
whose ancestor worked in a train station, where it is believed to have been found.
According to the first studies carried out on pigments at the University of Ascoli Piceno, the work, entitled
'The Serpent's Eye',
due to the rattlesnake that marks the outline of the dictator's face, can be dated between
1935 and 1937
.
Di María explained that if the authorship of the artist is verified, it would be
an exceptional discovery,
as it would also be a great example of the great opposition and
struggle of Picasso against Hitler.
Keep the box a secret
In this work
Hitler is "caricatured"
thanks to the inclusion of some elements not tolerated by the
Führer
and the Nazi regime such as
facial makeup, lipstick and a pipe
, since Hitler hated tobacco.
While the written word Schweigen
("Shut up" in German)
can be seen on the lips , which could have various interpretations such as
the desire to keep the work secret,
to prevent the author from being persecuted by the Nazis, or persecution and censorship who exercised the regime.
Although the work is not signed, the expert calligrapher Stefano Fortunati has underlined, after analyzing this written word, that
the initial "S" coincides with Picasso's writing style.
For the Italian expert, there are many elements that indicate
Pablo Picasso
's hand, such as the shape of the eyes or the lips that are "the same" as those that are also found in the design he made of Iósif Stalin, although the painting is "hybrid "between the
pictorial characteristics of the artist from Malaga and those of Klee
, since it was intended to be a gift to the German artist.
In addition, Di Maria has pointed out that the analysis of the painting has determined that there are
chemical elements used by Picasso at that time
and that over time they caused them to be somewhat discolored and had to be retouched.
"The work deserves to be known, studied again and seen by other experts to appreciate its importance. It undoubtedly represents
one of the most important works of the 20th century as a critic of Nazism
. A testimony of dissidence, bearer of the truth of those horrors committed by one of the bloodiest dictators in history. Only a genius and a master of expressionism with a deep
sense of poignant irony
could have created such a painting."
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