I walked over to see the painting on my lunch hour (and it was cold! and windy!) It's on the second floor, and there's a shortcut to see it. If you veer to the left at the top of the stairs, you'll find another entryway -- walk down a short L-shaped hallway, enter the room, and there it is, on your left.
I sat down on a bench in the middle of the room and took out my notebook (no, not every entry will be this detailed... I'm just a little nervous... the following will be so pedestrian.) The painting is bigger than I remembered, and the colors are more vivid. And the guy still looks goofy to me. Because of his red body suit. Is it a toga -- then why the long sleeves? Or is it pants -- then where are his legs?
So, I'm sitting there with my notebook, and I'm trying to remember anything from my undergrad Intro to Art class. My professor (name long since forgotten) talked about color a lot, and proportion. I dimly recall him saying that the eye travels first to anything in red -- well, that would explain my fascination with the fashion nightmare.
And then, and undoubtedly because Picasso has drawn in part of one, I remember that the canvas is a series of quadrants. Eureka! She (though I'm going to have to name them if I'm going to write about them all year)... Cassandra is on the left, and Nicolai is on the right. The blue background is on the left, the purple background is on the right. Cassandra is mostly in the middle-left quadrant (lengthwise), Nicolai is mostly in the middle-right quadrant.
Thus concludes the first entry, for a couple of reasons: I don't want to say everything today because then what will I say tomorrow; and I'm going to try to stick to 30 minutes per post. I want this to add to my life, not engulf it.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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1 comment:
This is a powerful painting and your reason, though not quite defined (to yourself?) are also powerful. Good luck figuring out Picasso.
--from an Art History major
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