London, 20-year-old defaces Picasso painting at Tate Modern

A 20-year-old North London resident was arrested for defacing a painting by Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, 1973) on Dec. 28 at the Tate Modern. The vandal will now remain in custody until Jan. 30, when a preliminary hearing will be held. The work attacked is Bust of a Woman from 1944: it is an oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm, made in Paris in May, during the last months of the Nazi occupation, in the same studio where the Spanish painter painted Guernica. Posing for the work (estimated to be worth £20 million) was Picasso’s muse and lover, Dora Maar. The condition of the work is unknown; in fact, the Tate has made no statement on the matter. A museum spokesperson only said that “the work has been turned over to the conservation staff for action.” The museum has remained open at all times. It is not known what prompted the 20-year-old to make the gesture.

The painting, reads the Tate’s record, “shows the typical physiognomy that Picasso attributed to Dora Maar”: in the work, the woman wears a green hat and dress and sits on a black metal chair. The face is constructed with the typical Cubist procedure of different planes and, as is typical of Picasso in the 1940s, the mouth and nose have a different orientation. The arms have the shape of two geometric figures and one is completely detached from the rest of the body. Dora Maar posed in those years for several of Picasso’s paintings. The Bust of a Woman is not a painting owned by the Tate: in fact, it is a long-term loan that began in 2011 (the work’s owner is a private collector).

Pictured: Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman (1944; oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm; London, Tate Modern)

London, 20-year-old defaces Picasso painting at Tate Modern

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