The final episode of "Genius"/Picasso reveals the major shortcoming of the series: there is far too much emphasis on the women in Picasso's life and not enough coverage of the artistic genius.
The greatest merits of the series are the segments that reveal Picasso as a great artistic experimenter. The programs only superficially touch on the major artistic styles of the abstract art, cubism, collage, and surrealism. The opening program that covered Picasso's masterwork "Guernica" was outstanding. But the series as a whole needed much greater analysis of Picasso's individual paintings and how they evolved.
The series skipped around liberally in timeframes, typically alternating segments with the older and younger Picasso. The actor playing the Picasso in his 20s and 30s was terrific, capturing Picasso's obsession with his art. It is not clear if Picasso's dying words were "I need paper and charcoal." But the implications of those words needed to be explored more in the series.
The closing episode introduces into the elderly Picasso's life yet another young woman, Jacqueline Roque, who becomes Picasso's second and final wife. Clearly, he was able to attract younger women into his orbit, but used them only to fill up some void in his monumental ego. Rarely did he give much in return. The actresses who had to play these thankless roles captured the essence of a bygone era when women were not perceived as equals in their world of the twentieth century and especially not in the megalomanical mind of Pablo Picasso.
Far too much time is spent in this last episode on Françoise Gilot's legal wrangling with Picasso. At one point, she confronts him with the words, "You care for no one but yourself." That is a fair summary of Picasso's serial relationships with women, as portrayed in the program. But for his art, one of the best quotes in the series appears in this final episode, when Picasso articulates his creed for artistic experimentation: "I have no interest in the past; I only look forward." Those words could serve as his epitaph.
The greatest merits of the series are the segments that reveal Picasso as a great artistic experimenter. The programs only superficially touch on the major artistic styles of the abstract art, cubism, collage, and surrealism. The opening program that covered Picasso's masterwork "Guernica" was outstanding. But the series as a whole needed much greater analysis of Picasso's individual paintings and how they evolved.
The series skipped around liberally in timeframes, typically alternating segments with the older and younger Picasso. The actor playing the Picasso in his 20s and 30s was terrific, capturing Picasso's obsession with his art. It is not clear if Picasso's dying words were "I need paper and charcoal." But the implications of those words needed to be explored more in the series.
The closing episode introduces into the elderly Picasso's life yet another young woman, Jacqueline Roque, who becomes Picasso's second and final wife. Clearly, he was able to attract younger women into his orbit, but used them only to fill up some void in his monumental ego. Rarely did he give much in return. The actresses who had to play these thankless roles captured the essence of a bygone era when women were not perceived as equals in their world of the twentieth century and especially not in the megalomanical mind of Pablo Picasso.
Far too much time is spent in this last episode on Françoise Gilot's legal wrangling with Picasso. At one point, she confronts him with the words, "You care for no one but yourself." That is a fair summary of Picasso's serial relationships with women, as portrayed in the program. But for his art, one of the best quotes in the series appears in this final episode, when Picasso articulates his creed for artistic experimentation: "I have no interest in the past; I only look forward." Those words could serve as his epitaph.
