Picasso Paints in Light
Invisible art on a canvas of air.
Chris Wild
1949
The super-prolific artist Pablo Picasso made use of any and every medium. His total artistic output has been estimated at 50,000 separate works, a figure that includes 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings; and multiple other works, including tapestries and rugs.
In 1949, the 68-year-old Picasso was visited at his home in Vallauris, France, by the photographer Gjon Mili. Mili proposed to the artist an interesting concept. The photographer had previously captured skater Carol Lynne with lights on the tips of her boots. Using finely tuned adjustments of lighting and camera, the skating virtuoso was recorded apparently trailing lines of light through the air. (below)
Mili allowed Picasso to examine the photographs. Might Picasso contemplate using a similar technique to create artwork that are gone as soon as they exist, drawings of pure light on a canvas of air? The artist agreed to conduct an experiment for a quarter of an hour.
But so fascinated was Picasso by the results of the experiment that he readily agreed to five further sessions. The work generated by these photo sessions equated to 30 images. Featured in the images are trademark Picasso motifs - bulls, centaurs and his own signature.
To capture the ultra-ephemeral art, Mili positioned cameras at 90-degree angles to each other, thus seeing both side and front views simultaneously. Picasso himself was revealed in the act of creation using a strobe.
The photographs were exhibited in 1950 in New York City's Museum of Modern Art. They show Picasso sketching shapes in space, invisible to him until Mili's frames were developed.