Brooklyn Museum presents It’s Pablo-matic Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby Exhibit
Pablo Picasso is still regarded as a major figure in art and culture fifty years after his passing. His fame and the astronomical prices at which his paintings have sold over the years confirm his position as one of the most prominent artists of the twentieth century.
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While recognizing the transformative power and lasting influence of Picasso’s work, It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso, According to Hannah Gadsby looks at the artist’s convoluted legacy through a critical, contemporary, and feminist lens.
The Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition, which is a part of the worldwide celebration of Pablo Picasso from 1973 to 2023, is organized by senior curators Lisa Small and Catherine Morris in collaboration with Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby. Nanette, Gadsby’s groundbreaking comedy special from 2018, took aim at the way in which art institutions often excuse the inherent misogyny of art history and how the public controversy concerning marginalized communities continues.
It’s Pablo-matic features over a hundred paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, and videos by a variety of feminist artists working in the 20th and 21st centuries; the vast majority of these works come from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection. Important Picasso pieces from the Brooklyn Museum, Musée National Picasso-Paris, Museum of Modern Art, and private collections are also on display.
The exhibition explores Picasso’s complex legacy and the influence it has on cultures all over the world through in-gallery contrasts and an audio tour featuring Gadsby’s biting humor and scathing criticism.
“If Picasso, in all of his misogynistic and narcissistic glory, must be remembered as ‘the greatest artist of the twentieth century,’ let’s also remember that it was that century which carried us into this dumpster fire of a world where absolutely nobody is happy,” Gadsby said. It’s safe to say that the twentieth century as a whole was at least as problematic as Picasso himself, and the nostalgia for it fuels much of the intergenerational conflict of the current century.
“We are still being ruled by monsters from the 1900s, so why not celebrate Picasso as the perfect mascot for such a monstrously arrogant and destructive century?” she added, according to a press release obtained by Detour.
The feminist artworks on display in this exhibition don’t necessarily represent a direct critique of Picasso or his work; rather, they act as interventions into the modernist movement’s predominantly masculine narratives. There are numerous artists, such as Nina Chanel Abney, Ghada Amer, Emma Amos, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Renee Cox, Kaleta Doolin, Guerrilla Girls, Harmony Hammond, Susan Janow, Rachel Kneebone, Käthe Kollwitz, Marisol (Marisol Escobar), Maria Martins, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Marilyn Minter, Louise Nevelson.
“As the only museum in the country with a Center for Feminist Art, it is important for us to bring the contributions of feminist artists to the fore when considering the evolving and complex way we have examined Picasso’s practice and biography since his death,” elaborated Catherine Morris. “Picasso has, in many ways, become a problematic figure. And the critical work of feminist art historians and artists over the past fifty years has played a significant role in his reframing. Working with Hannah to craft this transhistorical dialogue offers the Brooklyn Museum the opportunity to do so with both pragmatic insight and pointed humor.”
The public can check out It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso, According to Hannah Gadsby starting on June 2, 2023. The exhibition, which is being organized by the Brooklyn Museum in partnership with the Musée National Picasso-Paris, is a component of the Picasso Celebration 1973–2023.
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