At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this weekend, the 1956 film "La Mystere de Picasso." At first it seemed like it was going to be boring, these black-and-white Picasso scribbles slowly appearing on the movie screen, line by line, piece by piece, until the drawing is finished. Then another drawing. Then another. Then something a little more cubist. Then another.
But eventually they pulled back for a moment and showed the little man behind the curtain; showed how it was all being done. In a darkened studio, old Mr. Picasso drawing on the back of a white surface set up and filmed in such a way that he, the artist, was not visible, only the art.
Then they started to run out of film. The artist said he wanted to try something more precarious. Pulling out the oils, he did a larger format painting which morphed and changed in a series of animated freeze-frames. After a short time, the finished piece and the director's voice, in French: "I'm worried that the audience will think you did this in ten minutes."
"How long did it take?" asks Picasso.
"Five hours!"
"So now they know."
Monday, February 12, 2007
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