HUGHES & PICASSO
Numerous overlaps and intersections between Langston Hughes and Pablo Picasso have been found. In this collection we find that Hughes was keenly aware and receptive of Picasso and his work, as seen in artifacts including postcards to poems. Yet, was this artistic appreciation reciprocated? In the context of this collection, Picasso’s work presents itself as a unique potentiality: did Hughes and Picasso meet in person? If so, what kind of relationship did they have? In considering the concrete evidence that they knew of each other, what did they think of their work? What intention, if any, lies behind these intersections?
Below you can find numerous pieces that connect Langston Hughes to Pablo Picasso: from poems to paintings to postcards. While a concrete relationship between these two has yet to be found, we can situate these artists together and consider how their works compliment and challenge each other.
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THE PIPES OF PAN
1923 - from The Museum of Modern Art
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WOMAN WITH A FAN
1907 - from the Art Institute of Chicago
BACK OF POSTCARD
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FEMME À LA CHEMISE
1905 - from Tate Gallery
BACK OF POSTCARD
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NATURE MORTE À LA TÊTE ANTIQUE
“Still life with Antique Head” - Pablo Picasso, 1925
Oil on canvas: 97 x 130 cm
Located at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Lastly, we have a poem by Langston Hughes that not only mentions Picasso, but also the genre of art that he was widely known for: Cubism.
Cubes
Langston Hughes
In the days of the broken cubes of Picasso
And in the days of the broken songs of the young men
A little too drunk to sing
And the young women
A little too unsure of love to love —
I met on the boulevards of Paris
An African from Senegal.
God
Knows why the French
Amuse themselves bringing to Paris
Negroes from Senegal.
It's the old game of the boss and the bossed,
boss and the bossed,
amused
and
amusing,
worked and working,
Behind the cubes of black and white,
black and white,
black and white
But since it is the old game,
For fun
They give him the three old prostitutes of
France —
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity —
And all three of 'em sick
In spite of the tax to the government
And the legal houses
And the doctors
And the Marseillaise .
Of course, the young African from Senegal
Carries back from Paris
A little more disease
To spread among the black girls in the palm huts.
He brings them as a gift
disease —
From light to darkness
disease —
From the boss to the bossed
disease —
From the game of black and white
disease
From the city of the broken cubes of Picasso
d
i
s
e
a
s
e
While Hughes’s “Cubes” refers itself to Picasso’s Cubism Period, most of the postcards he possessed came from his brief Rose Period. This era of his work was typified by a presence of life and warmer colors – opposing that found in his pieces of his Blue Period. Both Girl in a Chemise and Woman with a Fan came from this period, while The Pipes of Pan sketch of 1923 would have fallen in his era of work demonstrating elements of neoclassicism.
Interestingly, Still Life of an Antique Head would fall in Picasso’s era of work associated with surrealism, yet this painting seems to possess more features of his cubism and even neoclassicism style than the erotic element present in his surrealist works. In Still Life with an Antique Head, we see sharp color contrasts between black, orange-red, and a creamy white. With colors distinct of each other in a block-like fashion, the painting presents a two-dimensional scape decorated with unique shapes that overlay each other and create shapes of their own through this. Rather than shading, we have black and white interacting on a more level line. Through this, we can see that rather than having the blackness of the painting acting as the shadow of the whiteness, we see these two colors co-existing and playing their own role in their painting. This correspondence to elements presents itself not only in Hughes’s poetry, but also his autobiography titled The Big Sea in which this painting served as the cover art for the Italian publication. Hughes collected works presents a message of collaboration, coexistence, and equality – objectives playing out together in this painting.
In addition to the "antique head" that this piece focuses on, this painting features a bowl, a book, and a plucked stringed musical instrument placed upside down. There is ambiguity in the instrument as it could be a banjo, a mandolin, or something related, yet different, than these. Yet, it is worthy to consider that the instrument accompanying this antique head is not a harp – an instrument that carries a different demeanor than the picked strings instruments due to an elevated sense of wealth and societal prestige associated with it. This stringed instrument, then, reinforces a sense of commonality when paired with the still life of a an antique woman.
The antique head of this work is that of a black woman: the head and bust are a black surface, with the features such thin and narrow white lines that they appear to be carved out to reveal the white canvas under. If this was Picasso’s method, this nods towards the classical practice of carving marble statues of men and women; rather than carving stone, he is carving his painting. This neoclassicism is also emphasized when considering the features of the woman, which are arguably and distinctively classical in nature.
Additionally, what does this black goddess-like woman reveal of race and racial tensions and conflicts? The title, Still Life of an Antique Head, draws one to think of African when it is paired with Hughes’s The Big Sea – as Hughes’s “antique” would be associated with Africa rather than Greece. Therefore, this piece, when paired with Hughes, emphasizes the dynamism of the relationship between Blackness and Whiteness. This is further emphasized when we consider "Cubes" and the repeated link between "black and white" (line 19).
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PICASSO?
If you would like to explore and learn more about Pablo Ruiz Picasso and his different art periods, click here.