The Daily Journal from Vineland, New Jersey • Page B3

Shredding by RIDD, a Vineland-based company When: Where: SHREDDING EVENT City of Vineland Quick! Easy! Free! For more information call: (856) 794-4089 Vineland residents and businesses only. Five bankers boxes maximum. WWW.THEDAILYJOURNAL.COM B3 Max Bialystock, the own-on-his-luck Broadw ay producer in boldly proclaimed: got it, flaunt it, flaunt So the department of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is spotlighting some of its distinguished holdings ith two substantive exhibitions: rints: Myths, Minotaurs, a nd and ial Light: Flash Photography in the Twentieth On view until August 3, both shows focus on content not hype. At a press preview, Innis Shoemaker, senior curator of prints, drawings and photographs, proudly pointed out that her department alone has than half of the ollection extending from medieval manuscripts to the In addition, it also includes more than 300 works by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the most of any single artist at the useum. With fresh eyes, two oung scholars individually looked at the depart- extensive collection and put together separate shows in the Muriel and Philip Berman Gall ery (prints) and the Honi ckman Gallery (photography) on the lower level.

John Ittmann, curator of prints, delightfully acknowledged: curatorial fellows ee what we Prints: Myths, Minotaurs, and was organized by Nora Lambert, the curatorial fellow working with prints. Her show focuses admiration or classical antiquity that emerged with his first trip to Rome in 1917. interest in classicism a mere assing fancy but a constant source of inspiration. Using mythology and various ancient sources, he prolific artist tells old stories with autobiographic underpinnings. Lambert noted that Picasso was a sponge (who) absorbs everything and infuses it with his personal life, an active per- onal If Picasso were around today, he ould unquestionably be aregular of TMZ gossip.

This solo exhibition of 35 prints and several other sundry objects covers he period from 1921to 1 959. It is obvious how printmaking played such a important role in career, which is typi- ally dominated by his aintings and sculptures. The earliest images in the how look more like pen a nd ink line drawings than prints, however. It took Pi- asso a few years before he used the etching process to stunning tonal ef- ect. Most of the works on iew date from the 1930s, afascinating and turbu- ent time that coincides with the relationship with Marie-Therese Walter, the third muse and ove of his life.

I 1927, at the age of 45, Picasso happened to spot Marie-Therese, a 17-year old blonde, in front of a Parisian department store. Not long after their love a ffair began, the artist made in an intimately close-up image emphasizing her classic Grecian features that had so captivated the Spanish artist. he Minotaur, a Greek onster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, became the significant alter-ego. He creatively used the ythological creature aproduct of an unnatural union between the queen of Crete and a bull for is own myth-making. Of course, the bull also relates to his long-standing fascination for corrida he traditional Spanish ullfight.

For Picasso, the ritualistic bullfight was a metaphor for his life, seeing the as unbridled creativity and un- estrained gratification. Lambert stated: depicted his lovers and muses as hapless victims of the brutal Marie-Therese was lover, ictim, and I nterestingly, in Caressing a Sleeping the creature is leaning over his sleeping muse, suggesting at- raction, voyeurism, or even pending doom. Francoise Gilot, lover from 1944 to 1 953 and mother of Claude and Paloma Picasso, recalled the artist had later described this scene to er and said: study- i ng her; trying to read her thoughts hard to say whether he wants to wake her or kill Minotaur Guided by a Girl at is a ost imaginative interpretation of the myth. The Minotaur was never blind, but Picasso blended several mythological stories to create a fascinating and provocative image. It is bvious the classical pro- ile of the little girl is, indeed, Marie-Therese.

The relationship between Picasso and Marie- Therese disintegrated ith her unplanned pregnancy in 1935. The artist referred to this as worst time of my As his pregnancy became obvious, it deeply enraged Olga Khokhlova 1891-1955), whom Picasso had married in 1918. hough divorce was contemplated, it was never leg ally finalized. most ambitious and well-known print is (Minotaur battle) of 1 935, blending mythology and the Spanish bullfight. The growling horse is Olga, who so violent over his infidelities that she had to be re- oved from his commented Lambert.

The four attendant females have the youthful features of Marie-Therese. Looming over the en- ire scene is the Minotaur Picasso) on the right and aChrist-like figure (perhaps another self reference) on a ladder at the left; both are watching the urmoil unfold. One of the final works in the show is Dream and Lie of a pair of prints which was initially made on Jan. 8, 1937 (date is etched on the late). A image shows Gene ral Francisco Franco gored by a bull.

Six months later, in June, Picasso added four scenes depicting women and children fleeing the recent devastation at Guernica, the civilian town that was bombed on April 26 by the German air force with eneral permission. These strip-like cart oon images were origin ally sold by Picasso at he Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 Paris Fair to raise funds to benefit the Spanish Republican opposition to fascism. In the same building hung his newly completed and monumental canvas that became an iconic antiwar statement. The oth- special exhibit deals with photography in an adjoining gallery; it was organized by Amanda Bock, project assistant curator. Dating from 1909 to 2010, the 70 prints by 35 a rtists provide a survey of how flash photography as enhanced what the camera is able to do, using ither an accessory unit or something that was built into the camera body.

he show features any celebrated names in the history of 20 th -century photography, from photojournalists to fine artists; all are represented by images shot without atural light no matter how obvious or subtle it may seem. Significantly, the underlying advantage of flash photography is that it makes darkness visible. ock noted: hese photographers reveal our world to us as we rarely experience it ourselves, frozen in time and illuminated by an uncom- romising flood of The use of artificial lighting began during the Civil War with magnesium flash powder, which as quite dangerous and very messy. In the 1920s, mass-produced bulbs made on-location photography much safer and enabled a photographer to be somewhat more candid. Peter Barb erie, curator of photography, cautioned is a approach not a Lewis photograph taken inside a Bowery mission is the oldest rint in the show.

He used a burst of ignited magnesium that would have cre- a ted a blinding flash to illuminate its middle-oft he-night subject. Fred B. Adelson is a professor of art istory at Rowan University. Contact him at http://www.philamuseum.org/ at the Bowery Mission (above) is a 1909 work by American photographer Lewis W. Hine.

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, FROM THE COLLECTION OF DOROTHY NORMAN, 1997. Minotaur Guided by a Girl at now on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Asecond look Philadelphia Museum ofArt offers two summer shows that double your pleasure By Fred B. Adelson For the Daily Journal best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it ANDY WARHOL.