“If you become a soldier – you will end up as a general, if you become a monk – you will end up as the pope,my mother told me. I became a painter – and became Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the Spaniard from Malaga, proved a genius as a boy and became the most popular artist of the 20th century. No one, before Picasso, enjoyed an audience of such magnitude. And the art would have had a different shape without him.
Many of us enjoy his work that spans seven decades. One of the biggest achievements has become his and George Braque’s invention of Cubism (1911-1918). It was the first movement in which the picture is finished in your head. Cubism is teasing your wit, humor and shrewdness. It provokes and pokes fun at perceived reality, which was rendered conventionally for millenniums. It shows that art is about relationship: the dichotomy between shape and line, negative and positive space, two different color values, and especially between a painter and his viewer. Their debate is perpetually here and never to be exhausted. That is what has been always charming for me about Cubism.
Long after his Cubist period – in March of 1956 – Picasso enjoyed a weekend in a country estate in rural France. And we are invited to observe him. An invitation hard to decline.
Herbert Siguenza, one of the most talented artists I have seen in San Diego, takes us on an exciting and inspiring ride. He becomes Picasso right in front of our eyes and is leading a dialogue from his (Picasso’s) charming studio with us, the invitees . He shares his political and artistic views, his opinion of women, other artists, life itself and its meaning – all in a comprehensive yet philosophical pondering. To complete Picasso’s whimsical (and so much fun) portrait - we have an opportunity to observe him paint live on stage with a bravura that will take your breath away. With skill that transforms in some one’s else body – Herbert Siguenza’s artistic abilities have no limits. He conceived the play, he is the only (superb) actor and he reproduced the Picasso’s art on the stage. Yes, he paints as well as he writes and acts.
It is refreshing, inspiring, thought provoking, entertaining and beautiful performance . Eighty minutes spent in Picasso’s studio transforms you. You will feel like running home and seeking any Picasso’s picture to asure yourself that you are one of the millions who admire him. Then, you will like to know where to catch Siguenza on stage again soon. What a marvelous evening!
The play runs at the San Diego Repertory Theatre in Horton Plaza till April 18, 2010.
The art below was designed for San Diego Rep by a Platt College student, Kelly Barry, who recently started working as designer in Old Globe theater.
