Exhibition ambassador Mayu Matsuoka, with Sir Paul Smith Mayu Matsuoka x Sir Paul Smith Press Conference Photo Session Shot. The National Art Center, Tokyo.
An inventive new exhibition titled Picasso through the Eyes of Paul Smith is presently on show at the National Art Center, Tokyo. It will run through summer until September 21. The artwork is from the collection of the Musée National Picasso-Paris.
The exhibition, curated by British fashion icon Paul Smith, was originally held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death in 2023. It has made its way to Tokyo via Paris and Shanghai. Paul Smith appeared at the exhibition opening on June 9.
Pablo Picasso is arguably the most famous artist of the twentieth century. Born in Malaga, Spain, in 1881, he spent decades at the forefront of the creative world. His connection with Japan can be traced back to 1901 when he produced a poster for the renowned Kawakami Theater Troupe.
He was first exhibited in Japan in 1923 and has been highly influential on Japanese artists and creators, most notably Okamoto Taro, creator of the Tower of the Sun, which was featured at the Osaka Expo in 1970, and graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo.
While curious about Japan throughout his life, Picasso's single trip to Japan was in 1951, in conjunction with The Picasso Exhibition, at Takashimaya, Nihombashi, Tokyo. This exhibition, held at the tail-end of the US-led occupation, was a major cultural event.
Paul Smith is equally well renowned in Japan. His 'classic with a twist' creative philosophy is a perfect match for the fundamentally conservative dress sense of the Japanese businessman. He opened his first Japan-based store in 1984 and has had a strong presence within Japan ever since. During a multi-year run in the pre-pandemic era, his wallets were a go-to gift for young Japanese men on birthdays or as congratulatory gifts.
The Paul Smith Touch
The predominant twist Paul Smith has provided to the Picasso exhibition is the coloring and design on the gallery walls. Art is routinely hung on white walls. Those of the exhibition include stripes, patterns influenced by the artworks themselves, and vibrant monochromatic colors. The flooring has also been altered at times to include carpet and even fake grass. The lighting varies from room to room.
It was a bold decision, but as Smith explains, most art is originally intended to be bought and hung on the wall of a family home. Those walls are typically covered with patterned wallpaper or are colored in some way, so the plain white gallery wall is actually atypical.
The exhibition is arranged into 15 rooms that are thematic rather than chronological, but a degree of chronology is evident. It opens with Bull's Head (1942), a mid-career example of the 'object transformation' which Picasso engaged in. Picasso found a bicycle saddle and handlebar in a dump on the way to a friend's funeral and turned them into a sculpture representing the head of a bull. Picasso was able to look at everyday things and see something interesting and exciting, Smith explains. He saw art in the objects of everyday life.
Two of the exhibition highlights are contained within a room titled Childhood. They are Paul as Harlequin (1924) and Child Playing with a Toy Truck (1953), both hung on walls adorned with the patterns found in the paintings. Paul was Picasso's first son, born in 1921. The painting is characteristic of Picasso's so-called 'Ingresque' period, in which he adopted a more realistic style.
Child Playing with a Toy Truck is a similarly accessible painting that depicts Picasso's fascination with children's spontaneity and imagination. Paul Smith shares this allure. His shops include 'art walls' on which he frequently hangs the works of well-known artists next to those of students or children.
Surrealism and Stripes
Picasso, however, is better known for his surrealist depictions of the human form. The Reading (1932) is a featured work that Smith has presented in a room with striped walls. Stripes are a common device for both Picasso and Paul Smith.
For Smith, a preference for striped material was originally an economic decision due to the availability of cheap stock, but he would embrace it. Smith explains that stripes and flowers are the two main designs that he has repeatedly used. Stripes were a dominant motif in Picasso's paintings of the 1930s. They are evident in the exhibition portraits displayed from this era.
Surrealist depictions continue in a room of the exhibition titled Wartime, but, unsurprisingly, with tortured, dark forms. Picasso is best known for Guernica, a monumental work depicting the horror of the 1937 bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica. Picasso did not depict the Second World War directly, but rather represented it through portraits whose faces were tense with pain.
The theme of stripes carries over into a room titled Picasso's Striped Sailor Shirt. In the 1950s, the rise of television and press photography led to the creation of a visual image of Picasso in the public imagination. The image that formed was of a bald man clad in a striped sailor shirt. The shirt is "fresh", "simple," and "iconic," commented Smith. He responded by creating a room where scores of such shirts hang from the ceiling.
One of the more striking rooms is themed around bullfighting. It is colored a vivid red. Another is dedicated to Picasso's late period of 1969-1972. These works, explains Smith, were not universally revered, but were highly influential on the creations of a series of New York-based artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. The final room is titled Picasso on Show. It displays exhibition posters that were once posted on city streets to announce exhibitions. In this final room, the posters fill the walls.
Pablo and Paul
When asked about the similarities between himself and Picasso at the exhibition opening, Paul Smith first joked "marvelous looks," before sarcastically adding, "modesty." In truth, Smith is an impressive figure for a man of 79 years, whose career is much to be immodest about. His more serious response, however, was "curiosity" and an innocence that is "childlike" but not "childish". Childlike, continued Smith, is to have a "free and open mind."
Smith has proven an astute choice as exhibition curator. His free and open approach to exhibition curation has made the art and career of Pablo Picasso uniquely easy to appreciate, enjoy, and understand. One suspects that Pablo would be pleased.
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Author: Paul de Vries
