August 27, 2023

"My grandfather had love stories with each woman and no one was forced to do anything. Pablo Picasso is Pablo Picasso."

"He is not a usual person and my grandmother [Marie-Thérèse Walter] knew that he was married when he met her. She knew that he was having an affair with Dora Maar, just after [Walter] gave birth to Maya. When Dora Maar is entering the life of Pablo Picasso, she knows that he is having a child, that he has a second life with Marie-Thérèse, and that she won’t remain number three forever... [Maar's relationship with Picasso] was full of probably a kind of psychological violence that she’s part of.... Exceptional people are not easy. You have to accept that some people need more from you. They are more demanding and I think that Pablo was demanding."


This made me think of a quote from a review of a book by Jill Lepore that's discuss in my first post this morning: "The modern sex panic’s signature characteristic is an inability and unwillingness to distinguish between degrees of misconduct."

29 comments:

Gahrie said...

"The modern sex panic’s signature characteristic is an inability and unwillingness to distinguish between degrees of misconduct."

It's not just sex, it's everywhere.

How about this: If you child gets attacked by a bully at school and defends themself, they get suspended too. If a third party attempts to stop the bully with force, all three get suspended. If you're attacked, you're supposed to take the beating.

A six-year-old kid stealing a candy bar is the same thing as organized mobs clearing off store shelves.

gilbar said...

Pablo Picasso is my 4th favorite* Modern Lovers song.
It was ALSO the first song, that Anyone suggested i could sing in a band
[They gave me the words, and told me to read them out loud (i'd Never heard them before.
They said, i did just fine]

1) Government Center
2) Road Runner
3) Girl Friend

RideSpaceMountain said...

"The modern sex panic’s signature characteristic is an inability and unwillingness to distinguish between degrees of misconduct."

Horseshit. Misconduct gets men pilloried. Women get something like the above or a glow-up article. At no time are women - especially Picasso's lovers - to be held to the same standard of equality in the duality-tango that is all romantic relationships. Women are constantly making trade-offs psychologically with their mates all the time. Pointing that out to people gets the "misogynist" label. If that's the case you should wear it with pride.

rhhardin said...

Karen L Kleindfelder has a book on the relation of Picasso to his models as represented in his pictures. Online versions omit the pictures so are pretty useless, but maybe a university library will have one.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

women like bad-boys, part 3765

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

So the women knew what they were getting into but got into it anyway? That’s called “free will,” right?

mikee said...

Women, I have been told, have free will, agency, choice, and so on. Why emphasize the behavior or misbehavior of the male when the female's behavior is so much more interesting here?

Michael said...

Progressives are unable to distinguish between degrees of anything. Everything is either entirely wonderful or entirely horrible. Unlike reality.

Michael said...

Progressives are unable to distinguish between degrees of anything. Everything is either entirely wonderful or entirely horrible. Unlike reality.

Michael K said...

Picasso tried to seduce Sara Murphy and, when she refused him, he painted her husband Gerald out of a painting.

tim in vermont said...

Life is not fair; comparison is the thief of joy. Let Picasso be Picasso; you be you.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Is cancelling the dead an insurance against the un-cancelling of the living?

Or a clever opening of a Picasso retrospective at the MOMA?

rcocean said...

The fact is that most the women who marry or get involved with famous/Rich "difficult men" know what they're getting into. So, I have little sympathy for them. The only exception are the first wives, who marry them BEFORE they were famous and get dumped when Wife No. 2, usually more glamorous, better looking or rich, comes along.

Pauline - wife No. 2 -stole Hemmingway from his first wife. Gellhorn his 3rd wife had no respect for marriage period. The last wife, Mary, knew what she was getting into. And when Hemingway fell for some young italian chick at age 49, she just rode it out.

I think Picasso was a creep. But that's due to his being a Communist and supporter of Stalin. Not his so-called treatment of women.

Narr said...

The true measure of an artist, after all, is how he treats his groupies.

ObeliskToucher said...

I hope to live long enough to see this… (chuckle)

Kai Madison Trump: "My grandfather had love stories with each woman and no one was forced to do anything. Donald Trump is Donald Trump."

JAORE said...

No one was forced to do anything....

Way to set the bar high.

n.n said...

Civil unions for all consenting adults. Why so politically congruent ("=")?

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"Women, I have been told, have free will, agency, choice, and so on. Why emphasize the behavior or misbehavior of the male when the female's behavior is so much more interesting here?"

Because what feminism is really all about is power (not equality). And as such, every male/female relationship, must be presented as an example of the unequal power balance that always favors men. As Helen Reddy put it so poignantly, "I am woman, hear me bitch."

Clyde said...

@ Gilbar

Thanks for that version of the song. The only one I'd heard was the one from the Repo Man soundtrack by Burning Sensations.

Jamie said...

Call me bourgeois. I wouldn't be willing to settle for a part of my husband, brilliant as he is - and believe me, I was, as a very young woman, briefly married to a man who thought, without evidence, that he was more brilliant than my husband now of 30 years. I'm sure he still thinks that his brilliance still just hasn't been recognized.

A man who says he's just too spiritually big for one woman to "contain" is already so full of himself that there's no room for anyone else.

Does my attitude have a creative cost? Probably. Hence, call me bourgeois. But I'll do everything I can to prevent my daughter from falling under the glamour of one of these creative narcissists. Let some other person pay the price - there's always a willing victim, who will convince herself (or, I suppose, himself) that that price is worth the thing created. Thanks, I guess, for - what? I assume not for Guernica, but what do I know?

Doug said...

It you are rich and famous, there is no dearth of people ready to make excuses for you.

mgarbowski said...

Some people try to pick up girls
And get called an asshole
This never happened to Pablo Picasso

He was only five foot three
But girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not in New York

-Jonathan Richman

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Narr said...

These ladies will be recalled only because Picasso chose to bed or wed them. His critics should realize that no amount of scowling will change that.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Life is not fair; comparison is the thief of joy. Let Picasso be Picasso; you be you."

That's deep, man,... I like it.

Biff said...

Sure, but did Picasso ever get caught talking about grabbing women by their nethers?

Bunkypotatohead said...

Megan Nolan is Megan Nolan.

PM said...

That's so great.
Do whatever you want because, hey, your life was full of contradictions.