Picasso, Miro, Dali in Florence

Palazzo Stozzi

Today we visited the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The palace, built during the Renaissance for a wealthy Florentine merchant and banker, has been the site of a number of shows devoted to painters and paintings. The current show is called Picasso, Miro, Dali: Angry Young Men. We visited a modern yesterday in Lucca; we visited more moderns today in Florence.

Picasso Harlequins

The Strozzi Palace is a large building in the center of Florence. The building has a central courtyard that is open to the sky. The floors above the ground level give the participant in a show a circular path in a beautiful old building to follow from beginning to end. A few years ago we took in another show here, a very different show called Botticelli and Fillipino which brought together works of the two great Renaissance masters from around Europe. The current show has done the same for Picasso, the artist who had found his vision by the 1920s, and Miro and Dali who were younger and who were influenced by Picasso. All three have their works on display.

Dali self-portrait

The show was overwhelming. There were so many great works to look at and to think about. We plan to collect our thoughts and return for another visit next week. Perhaps  we’ll have more to say then.

Miro still life

One of the interesting things that we saw today was a group of about 20 children, about 6 or 7 years old, being led through the exhibits. The children were instructed by a young woman who had a great manner, great technique. She asked open-ended questions (What do you see here?) and accepted all responses graciously. The kids were very observant. She was careful to place her group down in front of the better examples; they skipped past a Dali showing two women, one dressed demurely, the other wrapped in a revealing sheet. That was a well thought out omission.

Picasso's costume

The kids were most interested in a costume designed by Picasso for a stage presentation called Parade. When the kids saw the larger-than-life-size costume of the “American Manager”, they got very excited. There were two other costumes, even more interesting, a little later in the show.

The Jean Dubuffet show in Lucca also showed that artist's interest in a show performed by dancers in very strange costumes. Yesterday we saw a film of Dubuffet's show; today we watched the excitement of children as they realized that someone actually wore that costume.

There was a bookshop at the end of the exhibit. We found a guide to the exhibit that was so heavy that it needed wheels and a handle. Fortunately, the guide to the show will be available on Amazon in the fall. We'll wait. We also found a good book about Picasso for a grandchild we know .