 |
A collection of sketches and
engravings created by Pablo Picasso in the 1950s and given to
his young lover and muse, poetess Genevieve LaPorte, pictured
21 June 2005, raised over 1.5 million euros
(almost 1.9 million dollars) at auction, within pre-sale estimates.(AFP/File/Stephane
de Sakutin)
| |
A lover of Pablo Picasso is selling 20 sketches he
gave her more than 50 years ago, showing the tender side of an artist
often accused of treating women badly.
"I have a mission -- rehabilitating Pablo," Genevieve
Laporte, 79, told reporters in an interview before the sketches go up for
auction in Paris Monday.
Auction house Artcurial puts their value at about 2 million euros ($2.44
million).
Laporte has also written a book about her love affair with Picasso and
wants to show the world a hidden side of the Spanish artist, often
described as "arrogant and scornful" with women.
Laporte and Picasso were lovers when she was in her mid-20s although he
was nearly 50 years older than her.
Most of the drawings are of Laporte during a holiday they took in Saint
Tropez on France's Mediterranean coast in 1951.
The secret love affair ended two years later when Laporte refused to
move in with Picasso after his partner, artist Francoise Gilot, left him.
Picasso, who died in 1973, was one of the most celebrated artists of
the 20th century. He co-founded Cubism but his prodigious output included
realist portraits and sculpture.
The collection of sketches was described as Picasso's "Tender" or
"Genevieve" period by the HermiTage Museum in the Russian city of St.
Petersburg when it showed them.
Laporte said she decided to sell the sketches "for my mission" and that
it would not have made sense to leave the collection to relatives.
"For my relatives it can't be the same," she said. "They can't have the
same relationship I have with these drawings."
Laporte first met Picasso as a teen-ager, when she interviewed him for
her school newspaper in 1944. She had by that time joined the Resistance
against Nazi German forces occupying France in World War II and started
writing poetry.
"I think we had a special relationship because we both were poets," she
said. "The first time I saw him I thought he was a very kind and lovely
man."
They were friends for several years before their affair began -- after
Laporte, with Picasso's help, visited the United States and Britain.
Explaining why the affair did not start immediately, she said: "He was
the same age as my grandfather, older than my mother. You see, 17-year-old
girls were much less mature in 1944 than they are today."
Laporte said she had no preferences among the sketches: "They are like
a river, where you can't separate water drops," she said, hoping they
would be kept together by a single buyer.
(Agencies) |
巴勃羅·畢加索的一位情人打算把畢加索50多年前送給她的20幅素描畫拿出來拍賣,向世人展示這位天才藝術家溫柔的一面,盡管他常被人指責粗暴對待女性。
“我身負一個使命,那就是恢復巴勃羅的名聲,”現(xiàn)年79歲的熱納維耶芙·拉波特在接受采訪時說。這批素描畫將于周一(6月27日)在巴黎公開拍賣。阿楚裏亞爾拍賣行對這些畫的估價約為200萬歐元(約合244萬美元)。
拉波特就其與畢加索的戀情寫了一本書,欲向世人展示這位西班牙藝術大師不為人所知的一面,而后者常被刻畫成一個非常傲慢而且蔑視女性的家伙。
當兩人陷入情網(wǎng)時,拉波特剛20多歲,而畢加索比她年長將近50歲。
這批畫作大多數(shù)是描繪拉波特的,創(chuàng)作于1951年他們在法國地中海沿岸的圣·特羅佩度假期間。
兩年后,當畢加索的情婦、藝術家弗朗索娃·吉樂離開畢加索時,拉波特拒絕搬來和畢加索同住,兩人的愛情也隨之結(jié)束。
畢加索于1973年逝世。他是二十世紀最負盛名的藝術家之一。他是立體主義畫派的創(chuàng)立者之一,不過,其大量作品中也包括不少現(xiàn)實主義肖像畫和雕塑。
當這批素描畫在俄羅斯圣彼得堡的冬宮博物館展出時,博物館方面就曾將之稱為是畢加索的“溫柔”時代或“熱納維耶芙”時代。
拉波特聲稱,她出售這些素描畫純粹是為了她的“使命”,而且把它們留給親屬也是毫無意義的。
“這些畫對我的親屬來說,意義就完全不同了,他們可沒有我與這些畫作之間的那種微妙的關系。”她說
拉波特第一次遇見畢加索時還是一個十多歲的小姑娘。那是在1944年,她為學校報紙寫稿而采訪了他。二戰(zhàn)中,她參加了反抗占領法國的法西斯德國軍隊的抵抗組織,并開始創(chuàng)作詩歌。
“我認為,我們之間有一種特殊的關系,因為我們都是詩人。當我第一眼看見他時,就覺得他是一個非常和藹、可愛的人。”她說。
在接下來的幾年時間里,他們保持著正常的朋友關系,直到拉波特在畢加索的幫助下游歷了美國和英國之后,他們才開始了戀愛關系。
對于他們沒有立即成為戀人的原因,她這樣解釋:“他差不多和我祖父相同的年紀,比我的母親年齡還大。你也知道,1944年17歲的女孩可沒有現(xiàn)在的女孩那么成熟?!?
拉波特說這些畫她都很喜歡,沒有偏愛哪一幅畫。“這些畫就像是一條河,你不可能把水珠分割開來,”她說,希望能有個人把這些畫保存在一起。
(中國日報網(wǎng)站譯) |