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Alchemical Contexts |
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 The Symbolists and the Surrealists, with whom Picasso's art was intimately associated, sourced a great many of their ideas from Alchemy and Magic. Picasso's art was likewise indebted to this mystical tradition. The 1934 drawing is replete with alchemical symbolism and was made for a specific purpose at the zenith of the artist's creative life. Because of this and the fact that Picasso's symbols tend to be universal, the drawing appears to contain a message that seems to challenge our materialist attitude towards the world and which has the ability to plunge us into the magical living world of symbols. Alchemy is associated with a variety of dispersed belief systems, some of which are thousands of years old. The Tao, the Mithraic cult, the Isis cult, Gnosticism, the Kabbala, Astrology and the Tarot are a few of its sources of occult wisdom. Some of the pagan religions of Europe were much influenced by the Eastern mystical cults that the Romans had popularised throughout their Empire. With the rise of the Christianity, such religions were purged from everyday life and became heresies that could only be practiced in secrecy. At the time of the Crusades between the 11th and 14th centuries, Europeans made contact with the culture and mysticism of the East and bought back to Europe a wealth of Eastern occult understanding which was to have a further influence on the pagan and other traditions at the bedrock of Western alchemy. Alchemy is concerned with the transformation of the individual into an enlightened being, hence the well known metaphor of turning base metal into gold. It uses a language of symbols and laws many of which were known in the ancient world. It's practice involves an initiation from where the initiate passes stages of understanding and development toward the ultimate goal, which is sometimes symbolised by a star. The drawing seems to be an alchemical treatise that serves on the one hand to clarify the nature of man's dilemma in a dualistic and seemingly chaotic world and on the other, poetically express all the forces and concerns acting on the artist's life at the time.
© Mark Harris 1996 Alchemical ContextsNext Section: Interpretations of the 1934 Drawing |
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© Mark Harris 1996 (content), Simon Banton 1996 (design) In general copyright of works by Pablo Picasso are the property of the heirs to the Pablo Picasso estate |
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