à Bordeaux, le vin des bacchanales et du Christ
CRITICISM – La Cité du vin presents an exhibition devoted to the place of wine and alcohol in the work of the painter.
Picasso and alcohol? This is the theme, a priori paradoxical, developed by the historian and art critic Stéphane Guégan in an exhibition at the Cité du vin, in Bordeaux. We know indeed the sobriety of the artist, as spartan in his diet as he was addicted to the studio, to the bed or to the bullfight.
The journey through 80 oils, leaves, massages or blends reveals a profusion of evocations, both wine and Suze, rum, port, and even Anis del Mono, the Catalan specialty. We start with the experience of the bistro practice. The scenes of cafés and working-class drinkers of social youth, Barcelona, then Paris, spent in the company of friends Carlos Casagemas or Juan Gris precede the blue period. When the roundness of a bottle begins to contrast with emaciated faces and emaciated bodies (see The Frugal Meal, here in an engraved version). Then, the formal drunkenness continues to mount. Glasses (of absinthe) appear…