Picasso "Centaur" Back on View
Pablo Picasso, Centaur , 1955. LACMA, gift of Gloria and David L. Wolper LACMA has put on view Picasso's Centaur , an assemblage-sculpture that has not been displayed since the current installation of Modern art opened in 2021. Centaur was created in the course of filming Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Mystery of Picasso , a 1956 documentary that won a special jury prize at Cannes and flopped in its U.S. release. The 85-minute film shows Picasso creating original paintings and drawings—often, P.O.V. the picture plane with almost no dialog or camera movement. The paintings and drawings were supposedly destroyed at the completion of production, making The Mystery of Picasso a literal art film, the only record of the works. Centaur was Picasso's idea. He asked Clouzot, "Shouldn't the end of the film have something in it made from the film?" He improvised with a lens box, a light stanchion, and an easel stand. The sculpture was bequeathed to Picasso's son, Cl...
