Picasso’s Ps
Left: Detail of Picasso's Faun Flutist (1949)
Center: Detail of Picasso's Musician, Dancer, Goat and Bird (1959)
Right: Detail of Picasso's Massacre in Korea, rotated 90 degrees to right (1951)
Remember to look for signatures on paintings because their careful placement can add meaning. It is rarely seen by those who are not artists themselves. Sometimes the artist's initial or initials are disguised as objects in nature so the viewer “reads” them as images of something else and thus misses the artists’ meaning. We have 31 never-before-seen examples from Dürer to Basquiat. The three above, all by Picasso, all have a form that resembles the P of his signature. Take a look at the entries. Reproductions in books are often too small to see the signature so try it yourself the next time you go to a museum. It can be a fast-track route to the artist's underlying meaning.
Posted 06 May 2011: PicassoVisual Perception
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