Charles Writes: Partisan Picasso

Partisan Picasso by Charles Grimes

After the liberation of Paris in August of 1944 Picasso was the mythical, but very much alive, King of France.  American soldiers were sleeping in the hallways of his home just to be near him, Western dignitaries saw him as a symbol of freedom for staring down the Nazis and the face of Picasso was on every tabloid in Europe.  Picasso was adored by the French Intellectuals for the simple reason that he came out from under the Nazi Occupation as the boldest or at least the least politically embarrassed of the French intellectuals in Post War France who had lived in a France governed by the fascists.   It was thought that over 40% of the French people collaborated openly with the Nazis and Picasso had had none of the collaborating, a lot of the suffering and most of all kept on working at his Art no matter what the consequence might be.  Although Picasso was the painter of Guernica and was a noted anti-fascist, Picasso lived openly in Paris.  And even if he had to keep his nose clean and his head down, he somehow managed to live through the four years of dreadful hostility and miserable living conditions while the Germans were running the country. On top of this Picasso even managed to acquire a new twenty-one year old girlfriend named Francoise Gilot who was an other worldly catch for a sixty-three year old Spaniard.  And she was smart and painterly to add to her qualities of beauty.  As always, Dora Marr was, as well, patiently waiting for his attention and living around the corner from Picasso vigilantly prepared for him to call at any moment.

Picasso was doing very well, it seemed, in August of 1944.

Then, in less than three short months later, Picasso becomes the anti-hero to the West.  Picasso joins the brotherhood of the Communist Party.

How did this happen?

Let me paint you a story about Partisan Picasso: