Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

 

Archive

 

 

Volume 12 Number 1, April 2011

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DOVES

PICASSO: PEACE AND FREEDOM

at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

 

when Louis Aragon picked Colombe

in 1949 for the poster of the Congres Mondial

des Partisans de la Paix

he set the secular end to doves being doves

at least on paper or canvas

 

of Picasso's many doves my pick is the one

he drew on December 28, 1961. It was used

for the poster of the national congress 

in May, 1962, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, titled

Colombe au rameau d'olivier

 

 

its simple undulating blue outline

and beaked green olive branch

may have taken him under a minute

but the time it takes to create is no measure

of the effect or quality of art

 

(though some like to give marks for effort)

 

and Aragon had the posters put up

the same day the image was picked

 

- P.K. Brask