Leonard Folgarait (UCLA), chair and professor of Art History at Vanderbilt University / USA, is a specialist in the art of Latin America and in European and American modernism.
Leonard Folgarait, is the author of "Mural Painting and Social Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940" and "So Far From Heaven: David Alfaro Siquerios' "The March of Humanity and Mexican Revolutionary Politics." His articles have been published in Arts Magazine, Oxford Art Journal, and Art History. He has lectured widely on a variety of topics in modern and contemporary art, and is beginning work on a book on Picasso and cubism. In particular, he is pursuing the question of how "natural" subjects such as landscapes and nudes figure in the development of a cubist art that challenges the very existence of stable "natural" models.

LAMB, PICASSO, AND HORTA

The influence of the paintings of Pablo Picasso on twentieth and twenty first century artists is fairly easy to establish, with examples such as the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and the American abstract painters such as Jackson Pollock.  But these are examples from the established masters of abstraction, from the academy, one might say, of modern art.  The influence of Picasso on artists outside of the mainstream of established art history is more difficult to establish, but the example of Matt Lamb comes to mind, and it is most useful to consider this self-taught artist in comparison to Picasso, not only in terms of stylistic influences, which can be traced from painting to painting, but, more interestingly, in terms of attitude, not only toward art, but toward the established mainstream of art.

            Most of the honored names of modern abstraction in art have reached a mature stage and then remained within that style for the rest of their lives, such as Kandinsky or Mark Rothko.  This consistency of style allows us to instantly recognize the paintings of such artists, due to their trademark appearance.  In fact, the art world holds in great esteem artists who maintain consistency in style and in quality throughout their careers, that Rembrandt can always be trusted to remain Rembrandt.

            But Picasso was different in that he re-invented his style so many times throughout his career.  Rather than remain within an identifiable style for more than a handful of years, his restlessness provoked him toward constant experimentation and a fearlessness about discarding a style that he had already mastered.  The most obvious phases that come to mind are the Blue and Rose periods, cubism (analytic and synthetic), neoclassicism, surrealism, and a sort of neoexpressionism toward the end of his life.  This atypical progression through his career makes Picasso unique among his contemporaries.  One only needs to think of Matisse or Chagall to make the case for Picasso's almost shocking shift from one major style to another, and his mastery of each.  In this sense, with each new beginning, Picasso presented himself almost as an artist operating outside of the expected, academic progress of art within the rank of the established artists.  In other words, with each new, radical change in style, he comes across almost as a representative of what we now call self-taught or outsider artists, such as our current example Matt Lamb.

            This notion of Picasso as a self-taught artist is most clearly seen in his discovery, along with his colleague Braque, of the style we know as cubism, a style so unexpected in its arrival and development that at first, it was limited only to these two artists, both of whom were ridiculed for adopting a style that seemed, at the time, so much outside of the norms of art practice.  It is highly relevant to this current exhibit of Lamb at Horta that Picasso first felt the burst of his creative push toward cubism in 1909 in this hill town, so far then from the major art academies, galleries, and art critics of western Europe.  Picasso created cubism with studies of landscape, still-lives, and human figures far away from the art establishments of Barcelona and of Paris, his permanent residence at the time.  It is almost as if he needed that distance to allow him the intellectual and emotional freedom to think of creating something new, like a self-taught artist not wanting to inherit a well-worn tradition, even if that tradition were one of the avant-garde.  At Horta, Picasso found the necessary inspiration from the rugged landscape and the humble townsfolk to launch into the first paintings that can be properly labeled cubist.

            Therefore, the comparison of Picasso to Lamb in terms of attitude toward the learning and making of art vis a vis  the art establishment is very close indeed.  It would now be useful to make some comparisons in terms of actual subject matter and stylistic treatment between these two artists.

            It would be fair to say that the style of Lamb is characterized by several factors: intense saturation of color, a tendency to emphasize the flat surface of the canvas, a playful attitude toward his subjects, a childlike (rather than childish) treatment of drawing and perspective, a world populated by fantastically invented people and animals, and a heightened sense of emotion.  It would also be fair to claim these same qualities for Picasso at different stages of his career.  In fact, one might make the even stronger statement that without Picasso to have pioneered all these qualities, an independent artist such as Lamb may have developed rather differently, perhaps without the powerful role model of Picasso to lend viability to these tendencies. 

            It seems to me that both artists belong on the same continuum of imagery and philosophy of art, and it makes very much sense to consider that the art of both have been related to Horta, although in very different ways.  This town seems to have the qualities to both encourage such inventiveness as both artists possess and to host their artwork.  In some ways, the concept of “Lamb Encounters Picasso” could also be expanded to include the sense of “Lamb encounters Picasso through Horta,” as this site seems vitally crucial to Picasso in general and cubism in particular.

            The great value of this exhibit will be to further break down the boundaries between so-called high and low art, between the labels imposed on professional and amateur artists.  Picasso and Lamb display such a high degree of dialogue and correspondence as to make these false divisions go away forever.  It is hoped that the viewers will take away with them a renewed definition of art, one that will open their eyes and minds to so many other forms of art that deserve recognition and appreciation.