Dali painted the portrait of his genial compatriot in California. It is interesting to compare it with
his own Soft Self - Portrait with Grilled Bacon,
painted six years earlier in the same place.
This portrait might be entitled Official Paranoiac Portrait of
Pablo Picasso, because Dali has assembled here all the folkloric elements
that anecdotally depict the origins of the Andalusian painter. His renown is affirmed by his bust mounted on a pedestal, symbol of official consecration; the breasts depict Picasso’s nutritious aspect while he carries on his head the heavy rock of the responsibility for the influence of his work on contemporary painting. The face itself
is a mixture of a goat hoof and the headdress of the Greco - Iberian marble bust, the
Lady of Elche, which brings to mind the Andalusian and
Magalan origins of Picasso. The Iberian folklore is finished off with a carnation, a jasmine flower, and the
guitar. Speaking about the work of this Titan shortly after his death, Dali said: " I believe that the magic in Picasso’s work is romantic, in other words, the root of its upheaval, while mine can only be done by building on tradition. I am totally different from Picasso, since he was not interested in beauty , but in ugliness, and I, more and more, in beauty; but ugly like Picasso and me, can be of an angelic type."
