THE POWER OF PABLO; A Show That Aims to Look at the Influence of Picasso Puts the Seven British Artists Included in a New Light -- but the Master Trumps Them All EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK

Byline: Brian Sewell

PICASSO & MODERN BRITISH ART Tate Britain, SW1 IT IS perhaps useful to remind visitors to Tate Britain's new exhibition, Picasso and Modern British Art, just how long ago Picasso was and how, in this particular context, the term Modern British is stretched to embrace the full century from Duncan Grant, whose first tame and tentative Picassian experiment was made in 1912, to David Hockney, who is still occasionally Picassian now.

Picasso was born in 1881 when Victoria had two more decades on the throne ahead of her, British forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan, Gilbert and Sullivan presented Patience, and Lord Leighton was president of the Royal Academy. He died in 1973, all but 40 years ago, when the Cold War was an ever-present threat, Britain joined the European Economic Community, our economy was wrecked by a cartel of Arab oil-producing countries, Hockney was into his first maturity and the infinitely forgettable Tom Monnington was PRA.

In his 90-odd years Picasso had been fin-de-siecle, had worked his way through the enchantments of periods Blue, Pink and Iberian-Negro (a term coined by Christian Zervos, his apologist), through Cubism Analytical and Synthetic, Classicism and Surrealism and into the violent distortions that succeeded Guernica (though never matching its sincerity), on and on through an astonishing range of whimsical diversions in every medium and visual …

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Publication information: Article title: THE POWER OF PABLO; A Show That Aims to Look at the Influence of Picasso Puts the Seven British Artists Included in a New Light -- but the Master Trumps Them All EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Evening Standard (London, England). Publication date: February 16, 2012. Page number: 40. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale Group.

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