Picasso the Anglophile at Tate Britain
Madonna isn't the only pop star who likes pretending to be British. An exhibit coming to the Tate Britain reveals a new side to the many-faceted Pablo Picasso. It seems as if the celebrated Spaniard came down with a case of severe Anglophilia on his first trip to the island in 1919 while designing costumes for the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat. As his studio was in Covent Garden, he often shopped at the famed Savile Row boutiques, outfitting himself in three-piece suits with watch chains and bowler hats.
Beyond the sartorial transformation (depicted in period photographs) the exhibit will show how Picasso's art won over a skeptical British public and media. G.K. Chesterton had once described one of his works as "a piece of paper on which Mr. Picasso has had the misfortune to upset the ink and tried to dry it with is boots". Ouch. Another element of the show, which opens February 15, will be a section featuring English artists who were directly influenced by the master, among them Francis Bacon, Wyndham Lewis, and David Hockney.
