Picasso in Montreal

Good for Montreal, for showing the “Picasso Erotique” exhibition of 350 sexy paintings and drawings and sculptures and ceramics from all over the world. Good for Picasso, for putting on paper and canvas (and bronze and clay) his thoughts and fantasies from youth through old age.

Picasso is not everyone’s cup of tea, of course. Some folks are put off by his twisted faces and bodies, with eyes, noses, mouths and breasts contorted in his various imaginative styles. Some will find offensive the “slightly bewildering undercurrent of aggression, exploitation, objectification, and even violence” described by Alicia Anstead of the News in the last WeekendStyle section. She observed, “The women of his works are literally spread open, bent over, chopped up and reconfigured for the greater entertainment, glory and pleasure of – presumably – the male observer.”

But as Ms. Anstead points out, people who dismiss the show as mere pornography or male chauvinism will miss a rare chance to appreciate the power and innovation of a towering figure in the art world. She called special attention to the works Picasso produced before and after he painted the landmark 1907 piece, “Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon.” That painting, showing the figures of five prostitutes covered only scantily by scarves or draperies, in a suggestion of a crucifixion scene, broke all the rules and “gloriously shattered modern art forever.” The context surrounding that masterpiece will help viewers appreciate it even though the painting itself remains at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Americans who missed the show’s opening in Paris probably have their best chance of catching it by traveling to Montreal, before it closes there Sept. 16 and moves on to Barcelona. Members of Congress have called American museum directors on the carpet for far less, threatening withdraw of government subsidies or tax-exempt status.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is doing us a big favor.