{"id":80377,"date":"2020-09-24T12:48:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T09:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=80377"},"modified":"2020-09-29T13:13:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T10:13:04","slug":"picassos-bull-as-a-template-for-teshuvah-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/picassos-bull-as-a-template-for-teshuvah-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Picasso\u2019s Bull as a Template for Teshuvah\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"80377","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34255,"related_cahpter":"577","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Part 2: Peeling away the layers to reveal one's core, reduction results in revelation\r\n\r\n","content":"

For part 1 of this essay \u2013 on Rambam, Soloveitchik and more \u2013 see here\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Picasso\u2019s Bull picks up where the Rav leaves off. The \u201cself \u201d that we \u2013 that I \u2013 seek to fashion in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, is not so much the result of assuming a new identity \u2013 that \u201ccreative gesture which is responsible for the emergence of a new self \u201d \u2014 but rather, the \u201cnew I\u201d results from a process of reduction, of synthesizing experiences and of stripping down to one\u2019s core, revealing an original entity. That is what teshuvah is predicated upon. There is no set path or sure steps, only a commitment to the transformative potential of wandering.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Bull, Picasso visually dissects the image of a bull to discover its essential form. Each successive plate, depicting a bull in an increasingly simplified form, represents a stage in investigation to find the true spirit of the animal. According to Will Gompertz, BBC\u2019s arts editor, the series includes touches of influence from others at various points: from the German Renaissance painter Albrecht D\u00fcrer, and the Spanish romantic painter Francisco Goya, to the Dutch Modernist Theo Van Doesburg and Picasso\u2019s own rival Henri Matisse. Picasso\u2019s unique voice borrowed and synthesized a universe of sensibilities. They are acknowledged but then stripped away to reveal the original entity, the core of Picasso\u2019s vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first in the series are heavier in hand and shade. The images then move through a process of reduction and progression which ultimately results in an image that is classic Picasso; simple and elegant in its form, a single line. Picasso takes ideas from others and re-uses many of his own ideas to emerge with an image of simplicity, where everything comes together in a delicate figure of a bull, \u201ca unique picture made by combining prehistoric cave painting with modern abstraction, an experienced hand with a new process\u201d (Gompertz). In doing so, he exposes what is normally hidden. Reduction results in revelation.<\/span><\/p>\n

For me, this is what the teshuvah process is about. In the quest to fashion a new \u201cI,\u201d we must first undergo a process of synthesizing experiences, influences, knowledge and emotions in a way that only humans can. But then comes the harder task, peeling away the layers to reveal one’s core. Each individual is a complex coalescence of factors, an amalgam of varied relationships, the product of accumulated life experiences, with threads and strands of emotions woven together in a tapestry of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what lies beneath it all? Where do the external stimuli end and the individual self begin? What is at the core? Where is the simple, elegant line of Picasso\u2019s bull? Only once we peel away the subtle and fragile layers that have accumulated and recognize the imprint of the influences that act upon us \u2014 building us up, but also weighing us down \u2014 can we emerge, with clarity, as new people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, teshuvah is about exposing what is normally hidden in the quest to regenerate, create and grow. We are waiting for ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Picasso’s The Bull (lithograph series, 1945) photo courtesy of the author<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":80375,"id":80375,"title":"yk-shira picasson","filename":"yk-shira-picasson.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/yk-shira-picasson.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/picassos-bull-as-a-template-for-teshuvah\/yk-shira-picasson\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"yk-shira-picasson","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":80374,"date":"2020-09-24 09:44:35","modified":"2020-09-24 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