Why Picasso continues to inspire the Levant
Picasso-Mediterranee, a two-year project highlighting the rich ties of the 20th century’s prodigal painter to the Mediterranean, concludes with exhibitions in the Levantine port cities of Izmir and Beirut.
The face of Dora Maar, the Surrealist photographer and tormented muse of Pablo Picasso, consists of an iron and wood bookcase. A pink plastic sieve nested in a pink plastic bowl lends depth and color to her cheek, and her trademark red fingernails are a toy fish and four silk rose petals.
What looks like a chaotic collection of items thrown together by someone who hoards plastic is actually a three-dimensional rendering of “The Portrait of Dora Maar,” the 1937 oil painting by Pablo Picasso, the brilliant artist and Dora Maar's cruel lover. Bernard Pras, a French master of anamorphic art, is known for turning pills, plastic utensils, paper, road signs and more into unique representations of famous images, such as Vincent Van Gogh’s “Auto-portrait” and “Uncle Sam Needs You.”
