Antonio Banderas taps into Picasso’s complicated ‘Genius’
As a teenager growing up in Malaga, Spain, Antonio Banderas felt that the people of his hometown were never able to pay proper homage to its most famous son: Pablo Picasso, who died a political exile from thྲe rule of military dictator Francisco Franco.
âPicasso died in 1973, so it was impossible to receive the applause of the people of Malaga,â says Banderas of the man heâs portraying in Season 2 of Nat Geoâs âGenius,â premiering Tuesday at 9 p.m. âFranco outlivęŚed him and that was a pity. Picasso had a love-hate relationship with his own country becauđse of Franco and the Fascists but he loved flamenco and bullfighting.â
In his own way, Banderas, 57, is making that gesture with his layered portrayal of the complicated â and often maddening â iconoclast who founded the Cubist movement and became, along with Henri Matisse, one of the leading artists of the 20th century. When he was offered the role, Banderas says he was intimidated, given Picassoâs dimâension as an artist, but he accepted the challenge. âIt was like somebody got me against the wall [saying] now or never,â he says in his raspy accent.
Born in 1881, Picasso was raised in an artistic home. His father, Jose Ruiz y Blasco, was a painter who, recognizing his sonâs talent, sent him to the fine arts academy where the student was soon rebelling against traditional methods of painting. American ađctor Alex Rich (âGlowâ) plays Picasso as the 19-year-old kid, who arrives in Paris with his best friend, Casegemas (Robert Sheehan), determined to make it as artists.
âHis fađ ther tells him he can do anything in the world,â Rich says. âThat instilled in him a sense of purpose. His father was painting pigeons, teaching Picasso how to use a brush so it was part of his life from birth.â
âGeniusâ contrasts Picassoâs humble beginnings in the Bateau Lavoir studio in Montmartre â when he figured out that the invention of photography meant that visual artists were nŕšo longer required to present a realistic pictorial porâtrait of the world â with his comfortable middle age, when he was a political figure. His 1937 painting âGuernicaâ protested the 1936 German bombing of that Basque village. He was also a celebrity, gracing magazine covers.
âPicasso was only one of the artists who didnât abandon Paris [during the German occupation],â Banderas says. âThe Nazis thought he was a degenerate. At the same time, there were some generals in the Nazi party who liked his paintings and tried to confiscate them. He played ę§a game with them. The fact that he was Spanish, that he wasnât Jewish â he was a slippery fish in their hands because they didnât have a reason to arrest him. Personally, I believe he was unbelievably lucky.â
âGeniusâ also amusingly delves into the artistâs busy love life. Women threw thđemselves at him, even while knowing his reputation. Picasso did not hide his mistresses from each other, driving them mad. He had four children with three different women; three of them â Maya, Claude and Paloma Picasso â are still alive.
BđŚanderas, though, does not consider Picasso a womađŻnizer.
âHe was clearly unfaithful, but I think he genuinely loved a lot of those women,â he says. âThey became his art Ââ Dora Maar (Samantha Colley), Marie-Therese (Poppy Delivingne),đ Fernande (Aisling Francoisi) Ââ he was a piece of work.â