Join us for a full screening of ‘Le Mystère Picasso’ by legendary French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot, one of the all-time greatest cinematic portraits of an artist, followed by a talk with art historian Gijs van Hensbergen.
Director Henri-Georges Clouzot peers into the imagination of Pablo Picasso’s studio and emerges with an intriguing documentary that captures real footage of the revolutionary painter’s creative process. With very little dialogue and set to a dramatic score throughout, Clouzot offers an invaluable and mesmerising journey into the painter’s mind.
Through a combination of stop-motion and time-lapse photography, Picasso’s creative process comes to life on screen. Paint strokes and splashes of colour appear as if by magic, as empty canvases of blank newsprint become platforms for a series of daring and original drawings and paintings, many of which exist only within the confines of this film as a number of the in-progress paintings displayed were destroyed after the film was completed.
This screening will be followed by a talk with Gijs van Hensbergen.
Gijs van Hensbergen is a Dutch art historian. Van Hensbergen’s projects and TV work include his collaboration with John Richardson on A Life of Picasso 2010-12. His publications include Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon.
This event is supported by Instituto Cervantes.
