Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 31/1/2019)

According of José María Luna, the director of the Fundación Picasso-Museo Casa Natal, Pablo Picasso was and always remained a Málagueño, as he never forgot the light of the Mediterranean port or the flamenco rhythm that coursed through his veins. Over contrasting monochrome photographs of 19th-century Málaga and an aerial view of the modern city, historian Rafael Inglada explains that the young Picasso grew up in the midst of a struggle between the haute-bourgeoisie and the working class, as the place depicted in Guillermo Gómez Gil's `View of the Port of Málaga' (1896) was falling behind its southern Spanish neighbours. However, it had a thriving art scene and José Lebrero, the artistic director of the Málaga museum, concurs that Picasso developed his crucial attention to detail from the distinctive mix of Christian, Moorish and Jewish influences he saw around him. 

Born on 25 October 1881, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was raised by parents José Maria Blasco and María Picasso López. Responsible for such pictures as `The Pigeon Loft' (1878), Picasso's art teacher father encouraged him to draw from an early age and he was just seven when he completed the remarkably proficient `Twilight in the Port of Málaga' (c.1889), which he signed `P. Ruiz'. Grandson Olivier Widmaier Picasso agrees that Don José did much to introduce his son to the world around him, whether it was the bustling life on the streets, the beauty of pigeons and doves or the spectacle and drama of the bullring. 

On 14 October 1891, Picasso found himself on the Galician coast in La Coruña, where Don José taught him to paint with oils while working on canvases like `The Tower of Hercules' (c.1895), `Man in a Beret', `Man in a Cap', `Girl With Bare Feet' and `Old Man' (all 1895). Such was the quality of these extraordinary pieces of juvenilia that Don José (who had ceased painting himself) agreed to a small exhibition in the Calle Mayor, although his son was disappointed by how few sales he made. Malén Gual, the senior curator at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, recalls his schooldays and Don José's decision to focus his son's studies solely on art from 1894. Yet, despite critical comparisons with Giotto and Raphael, Gual insists that items like `Self-Portrait' (1896) and `The Artist's Father' (c.1896) were the works of a promising boy rather than bona fide masterpieces. 

However, Lebrero detects signs of rebellion in `An Evening at Home' (1895) and `Self-Portrait' (1896), even though Eduard Vallès, the senior curator at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, avers that the classical training he received at the Llotja art school gave him the grounding he needed to pursue his own style. Moreover, while he still harked back to his roots in `Mountains of Málaga', pictures like `Barcelona Beach', `The First Communion' (1896) and `Science and Charity' (1897) reveal how the city provided him with an eclectic range of subjects. 

According to Reyes Jiménez, the head of restoration and conservation at the Museu de Picasso in Barcelona, the latter depiction of a woman being treated in hospital was consciously fasionable in its theme and she suggests that it was painted to please those who selected works for national exhibitions. However, it also reveals the extent to which he was still learning (as the patient's fingers are awkwardly elongated) and was still under the influence of his father, who seemingly posed as the doctor. But, what is remarkable about this work, is the fact it was produced on such a large scale by a relatively small boy in a cramped studio space. As a result, the press tempered their criticism of its flaws with an acknowledgement that Picasso had great potential. 

As they were increasingly at odds about Picasso's future direction, Don José decided to send him to the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. However, the academic lifestyle didn't suit him and items like `Rooftops of Madrid' and `Salón del Prado' (both 1897-98), as well as his 1897 copy of Velázquez's `Philip IV', owed more to his trips to the Prado Museum than to his tutors. Consequently, he returned to Barcelona after a year in the capital and began to frequent the city's bars. Vallès and scholar Silvia Loreti note his involvement with the group of young artists based at Els Quatre Gats in the Casa Martí, whose discussion of anarchism and Catalan nationalism had an effec on the teenager's political development. 

It was here that Picasso held his first exhibition and attracted the attention of such prominent artists as Santiago Rusiñol, whose wonderfully atmospheric `Café des Incohérentes' (1889-90) appears on screen alongside Ramon Casas's `After the Dance' (1899) and `Le Sacré Coeur, Montmartre' (c.1900). They had visited Paris and exposed Picasso to the bohemian lifestyle that had little in common with the conventionality of Don José. He had moved into a studio with Carles Casagemas, where he painted `Lola', the Artist's Sister in the Studio in Riera de Sant Joan' (1900), which reveals how markedly the 18 year-old Picasso's brand of realism had changed, as the light from the window obscures Lola's face to that she appears to have no distinguishing features at all. 

As Gual points out, this is one of the few pictures to show the interior of one of Picasso's studios, as works like `Barcelona Rooftops' (1895) and `Sunset' (1896) concentrate on the view from the windows. But, as Emilia Philippot, the chief curator of the Musée National Picasso-Paris, explains, his horizons were about to expand, as he accompanied a picture to the Universal Exposition in 1900. As we see Casas's `Portrait of Pablo Picasso' (1900), we hear an extract from a letter from Casagemas urging his friends to come to the City of Light, as it throbbed with a life that made its papier maché falseness all the more invigorating. He settled in Paris permanently in 1904, although he always considered himself to be a Spaniard in exile. 

Philippot, Loreti and Olivier Picasso note how he started to use the name Picasso around the time he produced `Self-Portrait in Front of the Moulin Rouge' (1900) and `Preparatory for Self-Portrait: Yo Picasso' (1901), which testified to his new sense of freedom and identity. As poet Max Jacob recalls, he was also churning out items like `Embrace' (1900) and `Picasso's Arrival in Paris' (1901) at the rate of one or two per day and selling them for quick cast on the Rue Lafitte. He also sported a top hat, even though he often wore clothing bought from workers' thrift stores. 

Moreover, the Exposition introduced Picasso to ideas and images from around the world. He also frequented the many museums and galleries and, as Vallès reports, he fell under the spell of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, whose `In a Private Dining Room' (c.1899) and `Mademoiselle Eglantine's Troupe' (1896) clearly shape the vision of `Le Moulin de la Galette' (1900), as Picasso switches from studies of ordinary people to the denizens of Montmartre's Belle Époque hot spots. A snippet from a letter discloses his excitement at being in such a vibrant place, although he reassures his correspondent that he is working hard and has eschewed the bachelor preoccupation with night life to dedicate himself to his art. 

Over shots of `Carles Casagemas' (1899-1900), `Fairground Stall' (1900) and `The Dwarf' (1901), we hear the contrasting critical opinions of Pere Coll and Gustave Coquiot, as the former highlights the flaws of youth, while the latter celebrates his dauntless use of colour. However, Picasso took praise and opprobrium in his stride and Gual rightly points out the leaps he made during his first few months in Paris, as he drank in the influence of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionsts. When he returned in 1901, his work was exhibited at the Vollard Gallery by Catalan collector Pere Mañach and Francisco Iturrino. In addition to pictures like `The Bullfight' (1900), which he had painted back in Spain, he also produced numerous new items for the show (60 in 15 days), which he painted on cardboard, as he couldn't afford canvases. 

Among them was `Waiting (Margot)' (1901), which Gual reveals bears the thematic stamp of Toulouse-Lautrec and the stylistic imprint of Vincent Van Gogh in its use of thick gobs of paint. Philippot concurs that Picasso invariably incorporated influences into works like `Group of Catalans in Montmartre' (1900), which were produced when he was living in virtual poverty with Casagemas. We see his `Germaine At Night' (1900-01), as Olivier Picasso explains how the impotent Casagemas was crushed when his roommate began dating his dream girl and featuring her in works like `Harlequin and His Companion' (1901). Thus, he tried to shoot her in a bar before turning the gun on himself and Picasso's Blue Period was sparked by his reaction to inadvertently driving his friend to suicide (`The Death of Casagemas', 1901). 

As Philippot suggests, pieces like `Self-Portrait' (1900),`Mother and Child' (c.1901), `Woman With Crossed Arms' (1901-02) and `Two Woman At a Bar' (1902) showed Picasso searching for an artistic identity. But, while the Blue Period began in Paris, it reached its peak in Barcelona, as he began capturing figures on the margins of society. He shifts, therefore, from pure representation in `Portrait of Germaine, Barcelona (1902) to invoking symbolism in `The Tragedy' and `La Vie' (both 1903), with the latter being a key work of the period in its allegorical reflection on the life and loss of Casagemas. 

However, there was also a new element of eroticism in works like `Woman With Green Stockings' (1902) and `Female Nude' (1903), which were inspired by his experiences in the bars and brothels of Paris and Barcelona. In 1904, he moved into the artistic enclave known as Le Bateau Lavoir, where he would remain for the next five years. It was here that he embarked upon his first serious relationship, although Loreti claims over `Reclining Nude, With Frontal Gaze' and `Self-Portrait With Reclining Nude' (both 1902-03) that his attitude towards women at this time was essentially misogynist. In addition to being Picasso's lover, Fernande Olivier was also his muse and figured in such pictures as `Fernande With a Black Mantilla' (c.1905)

In her memoir, Fernande recalls Picasso's devotion to her, as well as the chaos of his studio and his poor standards of health and hygiene. But Olivier Picasso admits over shots of `The Old Guitarist' (1903-04), `The Two Friends' and `Meditation (Contemplation)' (both 1904) that he was the jealous type, who sometimes resorted to locking Fernande in her room to keep her for himself. Yet, while he was prone to such mood swings, he remained a diligent worker, as he toiled into the night on works like  `Seated Nude (Madeleine)' (1905). This was a transitional piece between the Blue and Pink periods, with the latter often featuring the kind of performers who also graced `Acrobat and Young Harlequin', `The Acrobat Family' and `At the Lapin Agile' (all 1905). However, the change in style had much to do with Picasso finding happiness with Fernande and patrons like Gertrude Stein, who bought `Boy Leading a Horse' (1905-06). 

Loreti identifies `Family of Saltimbanques' (1905) as the key work of the Pink Period, as Picasso not only included Fernande, but also cast himself as Harlequin, who was a transformational character who created a fabulous costume out of rags. Over `Young Girl With a Flower Basket' (1905). Philippot states that Picasso was forever questioning the purpose of his vocation, the role of the model and the responsibility of the viewer to interpret the image for themselves. He was never content to rest on his laurels, but was always striving for new ways to express himself and convey his times in paint. 

During a 1906 vacation in Spain, Picasso and Fernande visited Gósol in the Catalan Pyrennes. This remote village was accessible only by mule and had no modern amenities. But Picasso was fascinated by its simplicity and made ochre the dominant hue in `Gósol' (1906). Yet he employed the same colour scheme in `The Harem' and `Nude With a Pitcher' (both 1906), whose theme had been inspired by `The Turkish Bath' (1852-62), which he had seen during a retrospective to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. According to Philippot, these works also bear the influence of contemporary culture, as Picasso sought to simplify his approach and, in the process. Moreover, in items like `The Two Brothers' (1906), the content of his painting begins to matter less than how the effects are achieved and, in changing his approach, he revolutionised the language of form.

The 10 weeks he spent in Spain proved decisive in Picasso's development as an artist. While producing `Self-Portrait With Palette' (1906), he also started to plan one of the most important pictures of his entire career, `Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon' (1907). A major influence on this canvas were the African masks that Picasso had seen in the Museum of Mankind in the Trocadero and Olivier Picasso and Lorei examine the effects of Primitivism on his new style. In his own writings, he had commented on the magical nature of the masks and the way in which they helped the makers connect with the unknown and critic André Salmon latches on to this in appraising `Les Desmoiselles', in which the faces of the five female nudes resemble the pre-colonial artefacts. 

In the estimation of Anne Umland, the senior curator of Painting and Sculpting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Picasso consciously set out to challenge the conventions of Western Art and impose his own aggressively provocative vision upon it. As Loreti and Philippot reveal, this boldly outsized picture was originally going to show a sailor and a medical student in a brothel. But they were removed to turn the viewer into a voyeur, although (as Umland suggests), such is the unflinching gaze of the models that they are the ones doing the looking. Olivier Picasso notes that the women were prostitutes from the Carrer d'Avinyó in Barcelona and, thus, the picture that helps shape his grandfather's future was rooted in his past. He also points out that artists rarely named their pictures and that the titles were often coined by dealers who needed to call them something for their catalogues. 

Loreti and Philippot use `Bust of a Woman (Study for Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon') (1907) and Paul Gauguin's `Nave Nave Mahana' (1896) to join the dots linking Classicism and Primtivism in showing how Picasso sought to combine multiple perspectives in a single image and how this epochal painting marked a turning point for Western culture by anticipating Cubism. As we see `Self-Portrait' and `The Tree' (both 1907). Philippot explains how Picasso challenged the laws of perspective that had held sway since they were established in Renaissance masterpieces like Raphael's `The School of Athens' (1509-11). 

Yet `Les Desmoiselles' was unseen outside the studio until it was bought and exhibited by fashion designer Jacques Doucat in 1916, on the recommendation of the Surrealist poet, André Breton. As Umland affirms, the critical response was mixed, but many saw this as the picture that took art beyond painting for the first time. It was acquired by MoMA in the 1930s and Umland suggests that viewers forget what Picasso is trying to depict and focus on why he felt the need to present these women in such a radically new and confrontational manner. In keeping with her request, the camera stands in static silence for 30 seconds to allow the audience to contemplate a watershed work. 

Yes, as we also see `Ma Jolie' (1911-12), `Harlequin' (1915), `Guernica' (1937) and `Les Meninas' (1957) and hear about Picasso's restless dissatisfaction with out own output (estimated at around 50,000 works), one is left wondering whether the film and its assembled experts have done enough to convince the sceptical about Picasso's genius or make it accessible for the confused seeking a way into the inscrutable secrets of Modern Art. Perhaps the Exhibition on Screen team have studies of the later phases of Picasso's career planned in order to provide those desperate to fathom its mysteries with a guide on how to look at Modern Art and appreciate what it's trying to say and how it is trying to say it. 

Narrated by Tim Marlow and scored by Stephen Baysted and Susan Legg (complete with flamenco variations on Erik Satie's Les Gymnopédies), this is an intriguing snapshot of the artist as a young man. Yet, while we come to learn about the centrality of Don José in shaping Picasso's talent (as both a parent and a teacher, and as the personification of what he came to rebel against), we don't hear enough of the teenage prodigy himself to gauge how he felt and thought during these tumultuous times. Instead, we are left to trust the impressions of intimates like Casagemas and Fernande, as well as the insights of the various curators and scholars, who often speak in generalities rather than providing in-depth analysis about how Picasso's everyday existence impacted upon his shifting perspectives and changing techniques.

As ever, the camerawork is meticulous and takes the viewer into the heart of the material. But Grabsky tries to cram in as many images as possible and one longs for the odd pause in the slideshow to allow one of the specialists to discuss a picture at greater length (as has been the case in earlier EoS entries) and take the uninitiated through the details that make it so significant in terms of its production and its wider historical context. It might also have been useful to see something of what Picasso's fellow exiles and fin-de-siècle contemporaries were creating at the same time to enable the viewer to discern the extent to which he was working in glorious isolation or simply leaving like-minded inferiors behind. 

By focusing on a specific period within an artist's career rather than on a single exhibition, this represents something of a departure from what has come before. But there is something reassuring about settling down with an Exhibition on Screen film, as it provides a haven from such quotidian concerns as the soul-frazzling chaos of Brexit and the dismal refereeing of Martin Atkinson. From the moment the camera starts to glide around a gallery, you feel you are in safe hands and are going to be instructed and inspired. There are always unanswered questions along the way, but Grabsky and his cohorts keep coaxing us into refining the way we look at art and the world around us. Long may they continue to do so.