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A Magical Metamorphosis of the

OrdinaryByERIC GIBSON

Updated April 16, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

There's a remarkable moment about three-quarters of the way through "Picasso:

Masterpieces From the Muse ationale Picasso! Paris!" now at the irginia Museum of

Fine #rts$ %#fter it closes on May &! the show tra(els to )an Francisco's *e +oung

Museum$, The re(elation comes in a gallery with work Picasso *i* *uring orl* ar ..$

/ong gone is thejoie de vivreof earlier *eca*es0the colorful paintings of sunlit beach

scenes with frolicking bathers! an* e(er- a(ailable women$ This is Picasso's bleakest perio*$

1is palette is restricte* to browns! grays an* blacks! pictorial space is sharply constricte*!

with figures an* ob2ects often literally bo3e* in! forms are painfully contorte*! an* themes

of mortality preoccupy him! most powerfully in

"4eath's 1ea*" %&567,! a bron8e sculpture of a

pitte*! scabrous skull$

Picasso's 'Bull's Head' (1!2". REUNION DES MUSEESNATIONAUX/ART RESOURCE, NY

Then! out of the blue! comes a moment of wit

an* whimsy: "9ull's 1ea*" %&56,! a sculpture

ma*e from a bicycle sa**le an* han*lebars$ #t

once both chil*like an* highly sophisticate* in

its simplicity! it stan*s as an assertion of the

transforming power of the human imagination at

a time when human (alues were un*er siege$

;onsisting as it *oes of only two elements!"9ull's 1ea*" is Picasso's sparest sculpture$ #n*

it is unique among his assemblages for its transparency$ .n most of them! the i*entity of the

foun* ob2ects! though not *isguise*! isn't emphasi8e*$ The toy car that forms the monkey's

face in "9aboon an* +oung" %&5&, is recogni8able for what it is! yet at the same time is

subsume* un*er the larger image of which it forms a part$

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.n "9ull's 1ea*!" by contrast! there is no attempt

to play *own the real-worl* i*entity of the

constituent parts$ .n*ee*! the sculpture's

re*ucti(eness an* simplicity *raw attention to

them$

#arcel $uc%amp's 'Bicycle &%eels' rom

11.ESTATE OF MARCEL DUCHAMP/ARS, NY/ADAGP,PARIS

Picasso's frank acknowle*gment of these

elements has prompte* scholars to see affinities

between this work an* Marcel 4uchamp's

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remaine* unchallenge*$ .n the same spirit! he woul* borrow an* a*apt their i*eas an*

attempt to one-up them in other ways$

1e certainly knew about 4uchamp! an* in*ee* there ha* been an earlier point of contact

between them$ .n the thir* (olume of his biography of Picasso! >ohn