All about you Friday - Art is life

This is Las Meninas, a painting done by Diego Velázquez in 1656. It is housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid and I saw it in 2015. It is reported to be one of the most important paintings of the Western world and has been analyzed for its use of light, movement, perspective and the way it causes the viewer to relate to various parts of it. It depicts a young Spanish child of the royal family with her ladies in waiting attending to her. Velázquez drew himself into the painting. You see him on the left and it looks like he is staring at you.

This is Las Meninas painted by Picasso in 1957. It is housed in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and I saw it a week ago. He spent four months studying Velázquez’s painting, playing with his interpretation of light and movement. He oriented his in landscape instead of portrait. He played with various sketches of each element over the months he studied the original. He added a few windows. He sketched 58 works in his study of this painting that he donated to the museum. Here is one of them:

On starting this project, Picasso said, “Suppose one were to make a copy of Las Meninas in good faith. If it were me, the moment would come when I would say to myself: suppose I moved this figure a little to the right or to the left? If the case arose, I would do it my own way, forgetting Velázquez…Gradually I would create a painting of Las Meninas sure to horrify a specialist in the copying of old masters…it would be my Las Meninas.”

Both works are priceless. Valued maybe in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why does this matter?

All great work in art, music and even in our profession, was inspired by something
Copying something isn’t wrong. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
By understanding the mind behind the original work and then adding your own flavor to it, a new masterpiece can emerge, neither negating or diminishing the value of the either work. It is how life expands and moves forward.
Walking through a museum without knowing the story behind a painting might make you miss its real value. Aim to learn the story before you judge the work. If it makes you think, it was worth it.
One might look at Picasso’s work and say, “I could do that.” You could. Maybe you should.

It’s been a busy week. Welcome to Friday. Make sure to celebrate.

Until next time…