A Surreal rendering of Christian salvation

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By E.A. Carmean Jr.

Far from being un-Christian, the distorted figures are little different from those in earlier religious art. PHOTO: SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS LONDON/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

Pablo Picasso’s “Crucifixion” (1930), an oil-on-plywood composition in the Musée Picasso in Paris that measures just 20 by 26 inches, is one of his most confounding works. Created using the artist’s distinct Surrealist-influenced vocabulary, it has been the subject of important scholarly discussions and has appeared in major Picasso exhibitions.... In the “Crucifixion,” the principal figures of Christ and Mary Magdalene are in white at the picture’s center. Christ’s simple “ball” head reuses forms from Picasso’s 1915 Cubist portraits. The Magdalene is rendered in the organic forms found in Picasso’s contemporaneous Surrealist works, her open mouth screaming the unspeakable horror of the execution. [link]