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Portraits of an artist:’Picasso, Photographer’s Gaze’ opens in Barcelona

A marine stripe jumper, a crown of grey hair surrounding his bald spot and a penetrating gaze: it is an image that has become emblematic of Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist adored by some of the 20th century's greatest photographers.

Portraits of an artist:'Picasso, Photographer's Gaze' opens in Barcelona
a photograph by French photographer Robert Doisneau of Picasso taken in 1952. All Photos: AFP

A new exhibition in his museum in Barcelona, “Picasso, Photographer's Gaze”, is a journey through the artist's life through pictures, some of them taken by Picasso himself and others with him as the protagonist.   

Included is a 1952 portrait by French photographer Robert Doisneau in which the painter appears for the first time with his trademark marine striped jumper behind a window, leaning on the glass.

By then, Picasso was living in the south of France where he would spend the last years of his life as a celebrity, under the lens of prestigious photographers like Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai or David Douglas Duncan.

“Picasso is photogenic. He'd had that awareness since he was very young and played with this image,” says Violeta Andres, curator of the exhibition that opens on Friday.

“He was one of the first to understand the power of image… And instead of shutting himself up and not letting anyone enter his space, he let himself be seen but always controlled his image.”

Dozens of photographers came to his home, taking portraits of Picasso and his studio, full of various works of art, but few managed to get him “working for real, in a spontaneous gesture.”

With the exception perhaps of his lover, surrealist photographer Dora Maar.   

In a series of 1937 portraits in his Paris studio, she was able to show Picasso forgetting the camera, engrossed in making one of his greatest creations, “Guernica”.

“It's one of the few photos in which he allowed us to really see his creative intimacy,” says Andres.

On top of portraits, the exhibition also includes photos taken by the artist himself as well as works born from his collaboration with photographers like Maar or Andre Villers.

READ ALSO: Eight highlights from Madrid's PhotoEspaña 2019

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ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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