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LACMA: Warhol & Picasso



Just like my day, "Black and White disaster", 1962 by Andy Warhol. He is a pioneer and one of the brightest figures of a famous movement called Pop Art. Bright colors, branding, celebrities, glamor- this is Andy Warhol. Warhol lived a hell of a life full of fame. Money was the priority, and he didn't care about love... Or maybe deep inside he did but never wanted to admit. What if Warhol actually cared?

"Every time you think of me, I die, a little". Black and White Disaster, 1962, from the Death and Disaster series (1962-1964) where he was featuring catastrophes and horrific accidents. Image of a body being carried from a burning building, which might be a macabre homage to one of Weegee’s pet themes.


Gorgeous works by Pablo Picasso, which I consider to be the greatest painter of 20th century. Painting "Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" was created right after "Guernica" (1937), the beautiful mural-sized powerful anti-war oil painting which shows suffering and chaos during Spanish Civil War. The woman captured on "Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" is one of Picasso's mistresses, French photographer Dora Maar. There are over 30 portraits of Dora, and on most of them, you could see her sadness and sufferings. Dora has been Picasso's mistress for 8 years while he was married to Russian ballerina Olga Koklova. Picasso had many misteresses, most of them you could see through his work.


"Cantaur" by Pablo Picasso

French film producer Henri- Georges Clouzot a master of the genre in 1955 work “The Mystery of Picasso”. During the course of 85 min film Pocasso produced 20 muscular & sexy artworks which according to agreement were burned at the end of filming. Somehow, a painted black and white sculpture “Centaur” survived.

The half-man, half-horse assemblage is no masterpiece, but it is a marvelously spirited sculpture that epitomizes Picasso's witty facility for making art of anything within his reach. In this case, he spoofs a Greek mythological figure in a gawky, black-and-white form made of film equipment.

The head, perched high atop a skinny neck, is a lens box. The neck and front legs are a light stand, while back legs come from a painter's easel. Striped patterns for ribs and bones suggest filmstrips. The "Centaur" has the flimsy look of something Picasso knocked out in a couple of spare minutes, but it's actually a very sure composition that shares the film's overlay of images. Both horse and man, the ungainly beast has a funny face on his breast and human arms flailing above it.

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