I would like to begin by thanking the art historian Dr. Graham Coulter-Smith. Firstly, for the insightfully text that he wrote for my 1999 exhibition BURIAL at the Sigmund Freud House Museum, London, which motivated me to continue my Une Anatomie research beyond transcription processes. And secondly, for his many astute and challenging comments regarding this essay. Had it not been for his interventions an already complex and inevitably circuitous narrative may well have descended into an unintelligible maze.
I would also like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Cowling for kindly taking the time to offer strategic comments concerning what may be for many the overuse of biography to interpret the anatomy drawings. For which I must plead guilty, but hopefully the reader will see the inevitability of this approach in the context of the lack of texts concerning Une Anatomie.
Inevitably it became necessary to track down a copy of the inaugural issue of Minotaure, which I did via friends in Belgium. The painter Jean-Pierre Ransonnet made his copy available for reproduction and Martine Doutreleau kindly provided further content details. Thank you to both of them.
Also thank you to Michele Cuypers, from Liège, who provided assistance with the first showing of the anatomy bronzes at the Sigmund Freud House Museum in London. Not only did she help to install them, which required blacking out Sigmund Freud's London bedroom (no easy task given the size of the windows), but she also subsequently translated my Une Anatomie 1933-2022 text into French and provided encouragement and critical evaluations over many years for which I will be forever grateful.
Finally, thank you to the various art historians and Picasso biographers whose work is referenced in the text, my apologies to them if my use of their texts was inappropriate or misdirected. I would like to single out three in particular :
Penrose, Richardson and Gasman. In 1982 Sir Roland Penrose visited my Portsmouth studio in connection with my work on metaphysics and perspective in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. As a result we inevitably focused on his relationship to the Italian artist and the role the juxtaposition of metaphysics and perspective played in the important De Chirico paintings that were once part of the Penrose collection. At the time of our meeting I had not begun work on the Une Anatomie drawings. Now, I find it ironic that for an afternoon I was in the company of one of the leading biographer/commentators on Picasso's work and at that point in time I was totally unaware of all the questions I would subsequently have loved to put to him.
Richardson sadly passed away in 2021. Although at times criticized for overly synthesising biography and creativity, his contribution to Picasso studies via his 4 volume A Life of Picasso and many other books, essays and television programmes will always remain incalculable. He was also amongst the first to recognise the highly perceptive contribution made to Picasso studies by Lydia Gasman. The 2011 Gagosian-Rizzoli publication Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou contains a heartfelt eulogy to Lydia Gasman by Richardson. I found Lydia's texts and approach to deciphering Picasso inspirational and Victoria Newman and Lyn Warren, co-Directors of the Lydia Gasman Archive, kindly sent me facsimiles of Lydia's hand written notes based on interviews with Marie-Thérèse Walter.
This essay, relatively short as it is, has been many years in the writing and along the way I encountered many people who have consciously and unconsciously helped to unpack my intuitive relationship with Picasso's Une Anatomie drawings, thank you to all of them.