Every Picture Has a Story

By Tom Teicholz

For 30 years, Michael Schwartz has owned and operated Galerie Michael, an art gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, building, in his own words, “museum-quality collections, one work at a time.” Works by Picasso, Dali, Goya and Miró adorn the walls for the current exhibition on Spanish masters.

With a staff of 24, many of whom hold fine-arts degrees and are called curators, Schwartz would be happy to sell you a work of art. But he would prefer to tell you a story first because what Schwartz really wants to do is enchant you.

I’ve known a few art dealers in my time, and much the way poker players have a tell, dealers have a “sell.” Some dealers sell status and exclusivity — as if you are joining a club; others make a more mercenary pitch, appealing to one’s sense of value, investment savvy and greed; for others, the sell is more aesthetic, with a focus on the artist’s technique, or on occasion

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Spanish Masters Opening Images

New Jersey Man Arrested in Stolen Picasso Drawing Worth a Quarter of a Million Dollars

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (AP).- The case of a stolen Picasso has been cracked — and police say it was a New Jersey man who walked into the gallery in downtown San Francisco, snatched the drawing and fled in a taxi.

Police arrested Mark Lugo, 31, of Hoboken, N.J., on Wednesday at an apartment in Napa, and found the artwork stripped from its frame. The 1965 pencil-on-paper drawing — titled "Tete de Femme" — was purchased at a spring auction in New York. It's worth about a quarter of a million dollars.

"I've had some sleepless nights," said Rowland Weinstein, who owns the Weinstein Gallery. "I feel very, very lucky and very relieved that the Picasso wasn't harmed and will be returned back safely."

Weinstein said he planned to upgrade the street-level...New Jersey Man Arrested in Stolen Picasso Drawing Worth a Quarter of a Million Dollars

Spanish Master Museum Exhibitions

Pablo Picasso

Current museum shows

• Kunstmuseum Picasso, Münster, through July 3, 2011, Dans la frénésie de la couleur: Les linogravures de Picasso / Im Rausch der Farbe: Picassos Linolschnitte

• Wolfenbüttel Museum, Germany, through July 3, 2011, Pablo Picasso: Malerbücher aud dem Kabinett der Herzog August Bibliothek

• Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, through July 17, 2011, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Angry Young Men: The Birth of Modernity

• Museum Lindau, Germany, through August 20, 2011, Pablo Picasso, Meisterzeichnungen eines Jahrhundertgenies

• Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, through August 21, 2011, Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912, co-organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art

• SFMOMA, San Francisco, through September 9, 2011, Les Stein ou l‘invention de l’art moderne

• Museo Picasso, Malaga, through September15, 2011, Picasso and his work under the objective of David Douglas Duncan

• Musée Granet, Aix-En-Provence, though October 2, 2011, La collection Planque

• Musée Picasso, Antibes, French Rivera, through December 31, 2012, Picasso and Friends

• de Young Museum, San Francisco, June 11 – October 9, 2011, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris

• National Museum of History, Taipei City, Taiwan, June 18 – September 18, 2011, Masterpieces form the Musée National Picasso – Paris

Upcoming museum shows

• Museo Picasso, Barcelona, July 1 – October 16, 2011, Feasting on Paris, co-organized by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

• Santa Barbara Museum of Art, September 19, 2011 – January 2, 2012, Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912
• Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, September 25, 2011 – January 15, 2012, Picasso 1905 à Paris

• Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 3, 2011 – January 16, 2012, Césaire, Lam, Picasso

• Kunstmuseum Picasso, Münster, October 15, 2011 – January 15, 2012, Picasso and his work under the objective of David Douglas Duncan

• High Museum of Art, Atlanta, October 15, 2011 – April 29, 2012, Picasso to Warhol

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sidney, October 28, 2011 – February 2, 2012, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris

• The Getty Villa, Malibu, November 2 , 2011 – January 16, 2012, Modern Antiquity: Picasso, de Chirico, Leger and Picabia in the Presence of the Antique

• Musée Picasso, Antibes, French Rivera, February 16 - May 20, 2012, Modern Antiquity: Picasso, de Chirico, Leger and Picabia in the Presence of the Antique

• Tate Britain, London, February 15 – July 15, 2012, Picasso in Britain

• The Frick Collection, New York, March 1 – May 31, 2012, Picasso: Reinventing Tradition 1890 to 1921

• Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, March 30, 2012 – July 15, 2013, Women, Picasso, Beckman, De Kooning

• Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, June 11 – September 3, 2012, Modern Antiquity: Picasso, de Chirico, Leger and Picabia in the Presence of the Antique

• Scottish National Museum of Modern Art, Edinburgh, August 6 – November 4, 2012, Picasso in Britain

• Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 5, 2012 – January 23, 2013, Picasso Black and White

Salvador Dali

Current museum shows

• Art & Science Museum Singapore, May 14 – October 30, 2011, Dali: Mind of a Genius

Upcoming museum shows

• Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA, July 21 – September 25, 2011, Dali Illustrates Dante’s Divine Comedy

• Fondation Beyeler, Basel, October 2, 2011 – January 29, 2012, Dali, Magritte, Miro: Surrealism in Paris

Joan Miro

Current museum shows

• Tate Modern, London, April 14 – September 11, 2011, Miró

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, March 25, 2011 – April 15, 2012, Spotlight on the Collection – Artists in Depth: Arp, Miro, Calder

Upcoming museum shows

• Fondation Beyeler, Basel, October 2, 2011 – January 29, 2012, Dali, Magritte, Miro: Surrealism in Paris

• Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, October 13, 2011 – March 25, 2012, Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, co-organized by Tate Modern

• National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC., May 6 – August 12, 2012, Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape

Francisco de Goya

Current museum shows

• Museo del Prado, Madrid, through July 31, No solo Goya

• Williams College Museum of Art, June 11 – October 2, 2011, Masters of the Modern: The gift of Madeleine P. and Harvey R. Plonsker, Class of 1961, group show

Upcoming museum shows

• Nassau Country Museum, Roslyn Harbor, NY, September 17 – November 27, 2011, Francisco de Goya: Los Caprichos

• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 11 – November 27, 2011, Acid on Metal: The Art of Etching and Aquatint, group show

• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 13, 2011 – March 4, 2012, Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine, group show

• Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, October 18, 2011 – January 8, 2012, Winter Tales: Depictions of Winter in European Art from Bruegel to Beuys, group show

A Picasso comes to the Palestinians

Security guards keep close to the "Buste De Femme" by Pablo Picasso. It's on loan from a museum in the Netherlands.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• "Buste De Femme" was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1943; it's housed in the Netherlands
• It's being displayed for one month in the West Bank city of Ramallah
• Picasso used his art to express his feelings about the Spanish Civil War
• Art specialist says the work has much to say about today's divide in the Middle East

Ramallah, West Bank (CNN) -- In a small showroom in the West Bank city of Ramallah, two Palestinian security guards carefully watch over a masterpiece by one of the most famous artists in modern history.

The "Buste De Femme," painted by Pablo Picasso in 1943, is estimated to be worth $7 million. It was borrowed from the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, by the International Academy of Art Palestine for a monthlong display in the West Bank.

Khaled Horani, art director of the academy, says the project took two years of negotiations, preparations and overcoming some political obstacles.

"This is the first time in history where a masterpiece of Picasso comes to Palestine in the occupied territories and also the first time we are going to show a masterpiece to the Palestinians," Horani told CNN.

While Horani acknowledges that just some 20 kilometers (about 12.4 miles) away, there are many contemporary masterpieces in Jerusalem museums. He is quick to point out the limitations for art lovers who live in the West Bank.

"It's not accessible for Palestinians from the West Bank to go there and see the artwork," making reference to Israeli security restrictions. "This raises the questions around the political situation and art in general and its accessibility," Horani said.

Painted just a few years after the Spanish Civil War, the "Buste De Femme" one of Picasso famous paintings. The Spanish artist wanted to express his feelings about the bloody war that had torn apart his homeland.

The painting took a 24-hour journey from the Netherlands to the West Bank

Professor Lynda Morris of Norwich University College of the Arts in England and a specialist on Picasso, compared it with the political situation in the West Bank.

She said Picasso strived to understand both sides of the Spanish Civil War, and that holds lessons for today. "... Probably in the West, we know much more of the Israeli side more than the Palestinian side, and the importance to begin to address that balance," Morris told CNN.

Twenty feet away in an adjacent room of the academy, the special packing crate for the painting has been put on exhibit as well with the shipping label "From Eindhoven to Palestine" displayed prominently.

"This is the smallest museum and this box will be part of the exhibition," Horani told CNN in an advance preview of the painting.

He said the painting's 24-hour journey from the Netherlands to the West Bank was documented as it made its way to Tel Aviv. It was then escorted by an Israeli security firm to Qalandia checkpoint and then on to Ramallah.

The painting exhibition, which officially opened its doors to the public on Friday, was attended by Palestinians and international art lovers.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad went to the opening. He said the painting would go back to the Netherlands taking with it a little bit of the region with it.

"Destination Palestine, by itself, is of great significance to us," Fayyad said. "It is really moving to see this great work of Picasso is here and this portrait goes back to Eindhoven and part of Palestine will be with it," Fayyad told CNN after touring the exhibition.

"This is really a big thing.
--Christine Hadid, Palestinian architect

Art connoisseur Ola Abu Gharbieh said seeing the work in the West Bank made her proud.

"Palestinians are artistic. They are fond of art, and they had the chance and opportunity to bring such a universal and international work of art here in Palestine, and I wish to have similar experiences in the future."

Christine Hadid, a Palestinian architect and a self-avowed art lover, said the exhibit helped break through common stereotypes people hold about Palestinian society.

"This is really a big thing. We can show the world we can do something like this. Our life is not only focused on war and on all the bad things that happen to us while we are living in closure" Hadid said.

"This breaks all closures to Ramallah and Palestine. Maybe next time we will have a masterpiece by another artist -- Van Gogh or someone else. It's a first step for bigger events hopefully."

Picasso: Les Communicants

Picasso, Pablo
Les Communiants, 1919
Oil on Canvas
13 7/8 x 9 1/2 inches
Provenance: Private. Upon Request
Literature: Private. Upon Request

By 1919, the year following the end of the First World War, Picasso was committed to two radically different stylistic tendencies in his painting. The first approach was a continuation of Synthetic Cubism. The problems of depicting objects in space continued to intrigue the artist, and he generally used a Cubist method when painting still-lifes. The second approach was Picasso’s new Neoclassical, manner, stemming from his work with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, in which he forged a style based on the linear precision of Ingres and the Old Masters. To counter the mechanical and analytical character of Cubism, which to many reflected the breakdown of traditional order during the war years, Picasso sensed that the time was right for a new approach to the figure, and his Neoclassical manner was essentially a recovery of figuration and re-examination of traditional formal values.

However, few admirers of the artist’s work found this stylistic bipolarity easy to accept. Critics thought that the artist was being insincere and was attempting to pander to public tastes. “Depending on one’s aesthetic point of view, Picasso’s Neoclassism of the late teens and early twenties represents either an eclectic blossoming or a chaotic decay because of ths refusal to work in an exculsivly Cubist style. Yet, stylistic complexity is the central issue of Picasso’s art in these years, and it was crucial to his worldwide fame” (M.C. FitzGerald, Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentith Century Art, New York, 1995, pp. 100-101). Towards the end of the decade Picasso began to shift his allegiance form the pro-cubist Leonce Rosenberg, director of the Galerie de l’Effort Moderne, who had taken over Picasso’s sales during the war years while Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler had to remain in Germany, to his brother Paul, whose gallery was more conservatively oriented toward Renoir and the Impressionists. In 1919 Picasso had his one and only show at Galerie de l’Effort Moderne, a survey of Cubism, and thereafter he showed exclusively at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg, where his stylistic eclecticism was warmly received and generated more sales.

The present painting represents one side of Picasso’s stylistic coin at the end of the ‘teens. Based on an old photograph he kept, the subjects a young girl and boy on the occasion of their first communion. While some elements in the composition, such as the chair in the foreground and the sitters’ hands, are instantly recognizable, the children’s bodies have been broken down into sharply angular columnar plans and integrated within the space; the background is contrasted by means of the curved folds of drapery.

During the same winter Picasso painted a companion picture, almost three times the height of the presents work, but in a Neoclassical manner, Les premiers communiants (J. Palau I Fabre, op. cit., no. 347; coll. Musee Picasso, Paris), for which there are additionally several studies. The placement of the two children is identical and the chair is similarly arranged, although slightly angled into the picture plane. In place of a composed background in the Cubist version, Picasso borrows from the photograph a vague, empty space for the background of the Musee Picasso picture, in which shadows hint at depth.

The formal elements in both pictures seem diametrically opposed, and the subject itself carries very different connotations in each version. In the present painting the subject is only marginally relevant to overall conception of the picture, which is dominantly formal in intent and largely devoid of sentiment. The Neoclassical version is formally less innovative (except as an alternate response to the Cubist method). However the subject comes to the fire, and while there is a certain folk-like charm and refreshing simplicity in this rendering, modernists would surely object to its genre-like sentimentality and pietism. It is perhaps for this reason (and whatever personal meaning the photograph possessed) that Picasso did not sign and exhibition les premires communainats.

Picasso’s involvement in Neoclassicism began to diminish in th elate 1920’s as he exhausted the possibilities inherent in a limited range of subjects. However, throughout this period he continued to mine the richer vein of Cubism; it proved to be a durable formal discipline capable of periodic rejuvenation. After 1925, Picasso’s interest in the new surrealist movement provided the impetus for reasserting the formal concepts of Cubism, and this time subject matter would come mainly from his own inner life, his internal conflicts and emotional relationships with others.