Picasso’s “Found Art”

As he had previously done in his assemblages of 1912, Picasso resorted once more in 1930 to found objects. In this case, he used fragments of wooden stretchers and branches found in Boisgeloup to carve a small army of slender women, reminiscent of the bronze votive statuettes of Antiquity. A quarter of a century later, Picasso created his most monumental set of sculptures, The Bathers, here seen in their bronze versions. They were initially made with broomsticks, old frames, fragments of furnishings, and objects found by Picasso in scrapyards and garbage tips. Like giant marionettes of simplified forms in a contemporary beach scene, The Bathers are an updated reference to Picasso’s early Cubist assemblages.