PICASSO: PEACE AND FREEDOM and THIS IS SCULPTURE, Tate Liverpool
The Picasso exhibition was a Picasso exhibition. Wonderful, but seen it all before.
What captured me instead was Rineke Dijkstra's video work done with local children in response to the Picasso's work, in particular, I See a Woman Crying. They are asked to discuss the female figure in the painting and think about her story. What follows is an animated and excitable conversation amongst the youths, as they bounce ideas off one another about what could have happened to make the lady in front of them so incredibly sad. These children see a person, not a painting, for whom they clearly feel deep compassion and whom they want to help. I sit captivated, as wild stories develop and the children bravely speak out amongst their piers, leaning on each other for support and encouragement.
When do we loose this?
Dijkstra's second video, Ruth Drawing Picasso, is pure simple genius. I watch as young Ruth concentrates like never before, biting her bottom lip and just occasionally glancing up to see what her friends are doing, trying to her best possible version of Picasso's painting. As I listen to the pencil gently scratching the paper beneath it, the room literally fills with Ruth's nerves.
She is so scared of getting wrong.
She proudly signs her artwork on completion.
Both videos demonstrate a raw human interaction with art and its is exciting to see. Especially after witnessing the passive adult consumption throughout the rest of the exhibition.
As hoards of people traipsed through the galleries above, umming and ahhing at the framed pieces of history, I remained the only person watching Dijkstra's films, contemporary art at its best, the next generation.
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