Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of Youth and Slee’s Swans

On the first morning that has felt like spring this year I found myself just inside the entrance of the Sainsbury Centre at UEA. Bathed in the light, Slee’s Swans were organised in arrow formation as though ready to migrate. Despite their minimalist design the Swans have a beautiful energy about them, with the ridges of their bodies mimicking ripples in water. Despite their perfection, the swan’s ceramic bodies are handmade. The artist himself says that though he has created more swans in the past these to him seemed a gaggle, and comments on the way swans seem to unerringly appear in the decorative arts. Slee’s work often takes the form of glossy, colourful sculpture, and has said in the past that his inspirations come from past objects, found items and souvenirs, perhaps explaining the constant appearance of swans in his art.

Next, we headed down the stairs to the Centres exhibition area. The Legacy of youth follows through the relatively early stages of Picasso’s career (his work in his childhood to the start of his cubism era). If you are visiting, I would make a point to follow the art through that way, as it is fairly easy to start at the end by accident. The work exhibited includes sketches and paintings and is accompanied by pieces from those who worked alongside him in the different schools of art he traversed. The accompanying text is informative and interesting, I really enjoyed learning about the Intimism movement, which came along as a pairing to Impressionism, involving small (intimate) snapshots of life. The loveliest part is the number of sketches and quick drawings the exhibit has, which give a more human view of Picasso’s art. The exhibit culminates in a critical look at Picasso’s use of different cultures in his pieces, in particular masks of African cultures. Picasso found his fascination for these masks during the World Fair in Paris, and they appear in many of his later works.