"The intuitionism of Picasso": The damsels of Avignon
It was at that moment that Picasso entered his momentous stage in the history of modern art by conceiving Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, freeing himself from the symbolist doctrine that had characterized his blue and rose periods. In this new view of painting, intuitionism holds a central position, enabling a return to the spontaneity and fullness of the vital impulse.[1] Bergson is an inevitable element of confrontation in the enthusiasm aroused by the notion of conquering the world. Picasso's discussions with Papini and Soffici, as those he had with Max Jacob and Gertrude Stein, provided him with the ideas he needed. From Papini's perspective, as from Stein's, Bergson's thought was intimately associated with the foundations of Jamesian pragmatism. A veritable “parade ground”, as it was described by Salmon, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a visual testimony of the “vital impulse” in the sense given by philosopher Henri Bergson, a revelation of the urge to innovate that is inherent in the creative spirit of the artist: it is hardly a coincidence that the first title that Picasso gave the piece was Le bordel philosophique, the philosphical bordello. The capacity inherent in the “consciousness that is coextensive to life” for returning upon itself and placing itself under the perspective of an “integral vision” of the vital movement is one of Bergson's essential theses[2] that is confirmed by this revolutionary painting.[3]
Through Soffici, Picasso met the futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whom Wyndham Lewis considered to be a “ dyed-in-the-wool Bergsonian.” According to Fernande Olivier, they were destined to meet. She notes that the futurists' “irruption” into Montmartre in 1910 would naturally put them in contact with Picasso,[4] who was an inevitable reference for these artists whose work exuded innovative energy and modernity, and whose vitalist poetry claimed its allegiance to Bergson. The opportunism that characterized Marinetti, the movement's theorist, led him to rub shoulders with people who were sure to help him reach the amibitious goals he had set for himself. It appears that Marinetti's dealings with Picasso and with Apollinaire, whom he had known since 1906,[5]can be viewed in the same light. Given the ample bibliography on this subject and on the friendship between Picasso and Apollinaire during this period, it seems unnecessary to elaborate upon it further here. Beyond their friendship, Picasso admired Apollinaire as a writer. Apollinaire was reading Bergson at the time–Time and Free Will,[6] for example. The philosophical scope of these writings, which he learned about through Apollinaire, probably had an influence on Picasso's conceptual approach. Fernande Olivier remembers endless discussions in Picasso's hotel room with Apollinaire, the author of the Futurist Antitradition manifesto.[7]
It was in full agreement with Severini–who considered that “Marinetti's only concerns were the colorful and ephemeral butterflies of publicity [and he saw things] not from the point of view of art or in the interest of art, but rather from the sole perspective of the effect they could achieve”[8]–that Soffici eventually accused the futurists of diverting from the true principles of Bergsonian philosophy to which they claimed to hold a theoretical allegiance. This agreement with Soffici was bound to be short and ephemeral. The controversy flared up within futurism, and a schism between the Tuscans and the Milanese was inevitable. The latter, under the aegis of pope Marinetti, could not have lasted long as bedfellows with the former. To affirm the originality of the futurist movement, Marinetti did not hesitate to deny his filiation to the French symbolists, whose work he had contributed to disseminating in poetry recitals in a number of Italian theaters. “Let's kill the moonlight!” he proclaimed; the moonlight of which the symbolists, with their sight always set on the past, are accused of being the last admirers. In stark opposition to this spirit, the Tuscan Soffici searched for modernity in the radical psychological realism of Baudelaire and in Bergsonian philosophy. He considered Picasso's art to be the only one that respected the true essence of this philosophy.
[1] Cf. Giovanni Papini, “Enrico Bergson”, (1911), reproduced in 24 cervelli, Milan, Facchi Editore, 1919, pp. 285-95.
[2] When the work was published in May 1907, it was preceded by an introduction defining the theses that were considered essential by its author.
[3] L’évolution créatrice (Creative Evolution) was first published in 1907 and was met with almost immediate success, reaching far beyond strictly philosophical circles and receiving attention from the mainstream press and the avant-garde art world. At the time when Picasso was distancing himself from the influence of the symbolists and turning to the primitivism of African art, Bergson was opposing vitalism to the prevailing notion of divine all-might promoted by Catholicism. It was the beginning of a long, harsh ideological battle of Bergson and his vitalism versus Roman Catholic thought. It was to culminate seven years later when Bergson's writings were listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
[4] Fernande Olivier, Picasso et ses amis (Picasso and His Friends), “Ateliers” Collection, Paris, Stock, 1933, p. 213.
[5] Cf. André Salmon, Souvenirs sans fin, Paris, Les Éditions de la Nouvelle France, 1945, vol. I, p. 217.
[6] Cf. Un détour par la philosophie, in Laurence Campa, Apollinaire. Critique littéraire, Paris, Champion, 2002, chap. III : Les combats esthétiques d’Apollinaire, p. 96.
[7] Fernande Olivier, Picasso et ses amis, op. cit., p. 213.
[8] « (…) la quantité était donc pour lui plus importante que la qualité » (...therefore, quantity was more important to him than quality.) Gino Severini, La vita di un pittore (The Life of a Painter), Milan, Feltrinelli, pp. 76 et 93.
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Summary