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Within its "Invited Work" programme, the Museo del Prado is presenting this masterpiece by Pablo Picasso entitled Acrobat with a Ball.
It was painted in 1905 and belongs to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
It will be on display at the Prado between 16 September and 18 December.
This is the first time in 40 years that the painting has left the Pushkin Museum and the first time
that it can be seen in Spain. Its presentation here thus offers an exceptional opportunity
to contemplate one of the key works from Picasso’s Rose Period.
This phase began in 1905 and is one of the most important and interesting periods within his career.
As we can see, fundamental elements of painting such as the precise nature of the line and draughtsmanship,
the closed form and the pronounced volume are allied here to a very loose type of handling
and to matte textures that suggest fresco painting.
This combination reveals an artist who was reflecting on the very foundations of his art
in a way completely different to the practice of other artists of his day.
We should bear in mind that 1905 saw the birth of Fauve painting, which was based on violent colour, expressivity and pronounced emotion.
At the same date, however, Picasso was manifesting a concern for restraint and reflection.
In addition, we seem to find a sense of meditation on the very act of artistic creation,
and in fact the figure of the female acrobat has been associated with the artist’s playful nature while
the male athlete has been seen to represent his self-discipline and profound technical knowledge.
This period saw considerable interest in and enthusiasm for the circus, both on the part of poets such as Apollinaire, Picasso’s close friend
who wrote a particularly fine explanation of this painting, and on that of painters.
All of them paid almost weekly visits to the Cirque Medrano near the Bateau-Lavoir.
At that date the world of the circus and of acrobats was a type of alter ego of artists and poets. It represented a freedom of existence
outside bourgeois conventions in which Picasso felt liberated,
using it to reflect on key issues within art and on his own nature as an artist.
It is also significant that Picasso included two geometrical solids deriving from the Platonic tradition in the form of a sphere,
symbolising perfection, variability and movement, and a cube, a six-sided solid, symbolising stability.
The first is associated with the female acrobat and signifies playfulness and the fluidity of creative activity,
while the second refers to weight and to the solid stability of the hexahedron.
In his discussion of the motif of female acrobats with balls Apollinaire noted that Picasso’s intention in depicting them was to represent the harmony of the stars,
in other words, the radiant harmony of the cosmos.