AN OBSESSIVE LOVE
I actually set out to see quite another exhibition in a gallery. I rarely venture into museums over the weekend. The « Olga and Picasso » exhibition had started a week ago. Laurent had been on a Sunday and was surprised to find virtually no-one around. A week later I was more than startled to see no queue at all. In I went. This must be the first time I have been in the Picasso museum when it was virtually empty on a Sunday. I wondered if the spectators were not really interested in the exhibition as if they didn’t know who Olga was. Well, who was she? Olga Khokhlova, Russian (1891-1955) was Picasso’s first wife and lived with him between 1917 and 1935. From their first encounter she became the painter’s favorite model. She was the most frequently painted female model from the 1910’s and well into the following decade. What perhaps is so astounding about this work is the range of artistic approaches. Classical. Cubist. Surrealist. Olga with a mantilla - Barcelona 1917 Emile