Picasso was notoriously superstitious, preoccupied with the supernatural, eroticism and death. A fabulist of sorts, he salted his work with a vibrant iconography that embraced these aspects of his character. But Gasman also saw him as an essentially moral being, trying to combat evil through his art. She was incensed, not only that Arianna Huffington, who Gasman referred to as an “intellectual kleptomaniac,” had lifted much of what appeared in Huffington’s book on Picasso from Gasman, but that she focused only on the sensational aspects of Picasso and not the moral ones.
In France during the war, Picasso experienced the battle between good and evil firsthand, at times in great distress not knowing which would triumph. Gasman’s essay “Death Falling From the Sky: Picasso’s Wartime Texts” focuses on the journals Picasso kept while living on the coast of France, 1939-1940. The theme had particular resonance for Gasman, having experienced her share of air raids. The raids informed her life hugely: no longer was the sky the realm of God, but it became the place of death. According to Warren, Gasman was galvanized by Walter Benjamin’s 1940 essay “Angel of History,” which analyzes Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” (1920) inspired by WWI air combat and its “monstrous amplifications.” For Gasman, the “The Angel of History” also referred to fallen angels and she saw the ancient winged demons in art as foreshadowing the bombers of WWII. In 1990, while in Cologne, Gasman saw Anselm Kiefer’s show “The Angel of History: Poppy and Memory,” which explored this very theme and totally enthralled her. (Ironically, Gasman’s brother, reputedly the model for Ari Ben Canaan in “Exodus,” was a pilot in the Israeli air force and eventually a member of Knesset. Her nephew, also a pilot, died tragically when, on a mission, his parachute did not open.)
Fellow UVA professor and artist, David Summers suggested in his eulogy, that Gasman’s attraction to Picasso stemmed from a need to “come to grips with that century and her experiences.” One can only imagine what life had been like for a Romanian Jewish girl born in 1925. “Guernica” comes to mind. Though it chronicles a massacre in Spain, its theme of the violence and destruction of war is universal. A modern painting created using the artistic language of its era, it would have resonated powerfully to a contemporary who had lived it. To Gasman, Modernism was the quest for new forms of the sacred and modern artists were moving beyond the superficial, toward something deeper that unites us all.
A colorful figure on the local art scene, Gasman was known for her flamboyant personal style and her intense passion for art and, in particular, Picasso. Some might say Gasman was intractable and imperious (qualities that could explain why her dissertation was never published and why a deal with the University of California to publish her second book fell through). The reality is she was passionate about her subject with whom she felt a strong personal connection and was not willing to compromise what she believed, following an unorthodox path, using instinct and intuition to achieve compelling conclusions. It was she who famously tracked Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter down in the south of France in 1972 and interviewed her extensively about life with Picasso.
On view at the exhibition is Gasman’s copy of “Picasso: Collected Writings” a most interesting artifact, heavily marked up and laden with Post-It notes. It reveals perfectly the depth of her scholarship and obsession with Picasso. This obsessive attention to detail spilled over into other aspects of her life such as her living space, which featured walls covered with painting and text.
Funding for the Archive will come from grants organizations, private donors and fundraising events. The inauguration of the Archives will be celebrated with a launch party and benefit auction on September 22 at Les Yeux du Monde, and a planned symposium in New York featuring eminent Picasso scholar John Richardson, who said of Gasman that she did “more to unlock the secrets of the artist’s imagination than anyone else.” An opening reception will be held on Friday, August 31 from 5:30 – 7:30.
“Picasso, Lydia and Friends”/August 31- September 30
Les Yeux du Monde, 851 Wolf Trap Rd. www.lesyeuxdumonde.com