A friend after his own art

A documentary examines the rivalry between Matisse and Picasso, which spurred them to greater art and, eventually, mutual admiration.

By MARY ANN MARGER

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 17, 2000

Gilot, mistress of Picasso and herself a painter now exhibiting in Boston, is among a handful of people quoted on the show, which reveals the rivalry between the two through much of their lives.

Both men raised eyebrows and drew criticism for their avant-garde attitudes. When Matisse exhibited a flat, colorful and distorted Blue Nude in 1907, Picasso scoffed, "If he wants to make a woman, let him make a woman. If he wants to make a design, let him make a design."

Picasso knew that, radical as Blue Nude was, it would not change art history. But the show suggests it influenced a work that did achieve that feat: Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

In the years that followed, envy and resentment mellowed into admiration and friendship. One needs only to look at certain paintings by each to see how the earlier one had influenced the later.

Near the end of Matisse's life, he said to Picasso, "We must talk to each other as much as we can. When one of us dies, there will be some things the other will never be able to talk of with anyone else."

After Matisse's death, Picasso created a series that was a strange hybrid of the two artists' styles. It was his way of visually expressing his grief.

At a glance: Matisse and Picasso airs on WEDU-Ch.3 Wednesday at 10 p.m.

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