The other day, I went to the Picasso Exhibit
at the Seattle Art Museum.
The exhibition features more than 150 extraordinary paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs which were part of the Musée Picasso Museum in France. Because the Musée Picasso has recently closed for renovations, the museum is allowing the global tour of these works. The Musée Picasso’s holdings stand apart from any other collections of Picasso because they represent the artist’s personal collection of art that Picasso kept for himself with the intent of shaping his own artistic legacy.
It is claimed that the exhibition presents iconic works from virtually every phase of Picasso’s legendary career, documenting the full range of his unceasing inventiveness and prodigious creative process.
Despite the crowds, it is well worth seeing.
At the museum, I became intrigued by the work of Cai
Gao-Qiang and would have loved to have seen the installation of Inoppotune:Stage One, 2004
At first glance, I wonder why the cars were at the Art Museum?
This work is one in a series by the artist where a sequence of objects is set in motion in space, often acted upon by an invasive force - cars shot through by lights, taxidermied tigers pierced by arrow, or a pack of stuffed wolves that collide into a glass wall. Time appears in suspended animation, compelling viewers to pause and interpret these startling scenarios with narrative or explanations of their own imagination.
Cai Guo-Qiang has also worked extensively with fireworks, a medium which resonates here, and which also has deep culturqal significance in his native China. Wheather celebratory or ominoius, this work is intended to evoke a range of interpretations.
