Advertisement
Is Picasso a target of social media cancel culture? Artist’s many women, and his attitude towards them, make him ‘an idol that must be destroyed’, says guardian of his legacy
- Pablo Picasso had two wives, at least six mistresses, numerous lovers and offered some combustible quotes about women’s status – a challenge for his advocates
- Picasso museums have invited women artists to contribute to the debate and are holding workshops on his legacy, something that divides even his grandchildren
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Pablo Picasso’s track record with women certainly would not make the Spanish artist a feminist pin-up today.
Advertisement
There were two wives, at least six mistresses and numerous lovers – and a tendency to abandon them when they became ill; a voracious appetite for prostitutes, and; some eye-popping age differences (his second wife was 27 when he married her at 79).
Some of the quotes attributed to him would probably cause Twitter’s servers to combust if he said them now (“For me, there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats”).
None of this is new – it has been recycled through books and articles from (sometimes traumatised) family members since soon after the artist’s death in 1973. But in a post-#MeToo world, it poses a challenge for those who manage his legacy.
“Obviously #MeToo tarnished the artist,” said Cécile Debray, director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, France.
Advertisement
Advertisement