Harry Potter and Picasso

This is part three and the final part of my recent adventure with Sarah in Seattle.

We already had tickets and plans to see the Harry Potter Exhibit at Seattle Center for Saturday mid-morning and fortunately Sarah was able to get tickets on-line to the Picasso Exhibit for late afternoon. I was so happy that I wasn't going to have to go home without seeing the Picasso Exhibit after all.

The Harry Potter Exhibit was fun. It was a collection of props and sets from the various HP movies.

There were many costumes on display on mannequins. The costumes from the first movie that were  for the Harry Potter and his friends were so small. It made us think about what young children the actors were at the start of the series. I was impressed by how detailed the props were, especially the ones of the various creatures but at the same time I was struck by the fact that props are just props. When you see them close up they are fake looking. Ice sculptures are just clear plastic and floating candles hang from strings. It's intriguing that what matters is not how these things look in real life, but how they look with the right lighting and the right angles on film. It really is all about smoke and mirrors. My favorite props were the moving paintings. There were lots of paintings on the walls thought out the exhibit. Some of them were paintings and some were projections. With the dim lighting, it was a little hard to tell which was which. It was fun to stand by a painting and wait for some small movement. Perhaps a sleeping person's chest would move up and down, a seated figure would cross his leg or move his hand. It was subtle and like waiting for a prize.

Finally, finally, finally, it was time for the main event, The Picasso Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum!
It was simply marvelous. Many people only associate Picasso with his cubist paintings. This exhibit had those wonderful paintings, but also his realistic paintings, still life paintings, photographs, sculptures and what I guess would be  called mixed media paintings (for example paintings that have pieces of fabric or wallpaper in them). We listened to the audio tour headsets. One thing that was pointed out about the cubist portraits was that Picasso was pushing the limits of both the front facing portrait and the profile portrait by painting both simultaneously. (I hope it is okay to post this picture. I am including the reference, so I think that is like a footnote.)

 Art Resource, New York  Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937, oil on canvas, 92 × 65 cm

Seeing original paintings, as compared to prints or lithographs is a moving experience for me.  I get as close as I can to the paintings (This occasionally triggers silent alarms and results in museum guards following me around to make sure I don't reach out and touch anything. They are very polite and just stand near by, as a quiet reminder. I keep my hands down and have yet to be handcuffed and dragged out of a museum.) When I am very close to a painting, I like to see the texture of the paint, the length of the brush strokes and the width of the strokes that show when different brushes were used or even various tools used to apply the paint. I  feel almost like I am looking through the artists eyes and at the same time like I am  part of the painting looking back at the artist. I feel unconstrained by my own inabilities. I feel part of something beautiful, alive  and creative that only exists in that moment then disappears when I look away.  Perhaps it is foolishness, but then perhaps not.
  I was sad when the museum closed and we had to leave. Mostly, I am really happy that Sarah and I were able to go and experience Picasso.