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ART ON VIEW 80 the objects, and that says something about Picasso’s relationship with them. His fi gures, masks, musical instruments, and other objects were not just subjects for contemplation, but presences and forces that accompanied the artist in his creative endeavors. The epiphany-like role that these images suggest the African and Oceanic objects played in Picasso’s studios naturally leads to the questions posed in the second part of Picasso Primitif. Its title is “Corps à corps” (Body to Body), and the approach is one of free association between Picasso’s works and certain works by African and Oceanic artists, mostly drawn from the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, though they have no direct historical connections. Rooted in the anthropology of art, the ensembles presented here FIG. 6 (above): Pablo Picasso, Jeune garçon nu, 1906. Part 2: “Body to Body—Archaisms: Nudity.” Oil on canvas. H: 67 cm. Musée National Picasso, Paris, Pablo Picasso estate donation, 1979, MP6. © Paris, Musée Picasso, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Picasso, Paris)/Mathieu Rabeau. FIG. 4 (above): Installation view of Picasso Primitif. Part 2: “Body to Body— Archaisms: Nudity.” © Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Photo: Gautier Deblonde. FIG. 5 (left): Male fi gure. Lake Sentani, Papua Provence, Indonesia. Part 2: “Body to Body— Archaisms: Nudity.” Wood. H: 97 cm. MQB–JC, inv. 70.2007.62.1. © Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Photo: Thierry Ollivier, Michel Urtado. The show is divided into two major parts. The fi rst is a chronological examination of the highlights of Picasso’s experiences with non-European art from his arrival in Paris in 1900 through 1974, the year after his death in Mougins. The succession of facts, presented with all manner of documentation (letters, eyewitness accounts, photographs, etc.), allows the visitor to discover what Picasso saw, most notably at the Musée du Trocadéro and in the collections of his friends, like artists Derain, Matisse, or Braque, as well as the pieces he actually owned. The artist’s personal collection is represented by several emblematic objects seen in display cases, including a pair of New Caledonian roof spires (fi g. 1), a Vanuatu ceremonial crest that Henri Matisse had tried to give him since 1951, and the famous Baga nimba mask he acquired in 1928 (fi g. 2), as well as by exhibition catalogs that feature certain important works, like the superb Lega mask that had previously belonged to Louis Carré and which was illustrated in the catalog that accompanied the Arts primitifs dans les ateliers d’artistes at the Musée de l’Homme in 1967. Photographs of Picasso’s studios also punctuate this chronological exploration and offer even more fascinating information. Tribal art objects were always to be seen in his workplaces at Bateau-Lavoir, on Boulevard Raspail, in the La Californie villa in Cannes, and at the Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie. They hung on walls, were piled on pieces of furniture, and sometimes just sat on the fl oor (fi gs. 1 and 3). The “messy” character of these spaces demonstrates the complete absence of any attempt to “aestheticize”


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