Picasso’s Barber
by Peter Stone
The mountain town of Buitrago del Lozoya 50 miles
north of Madrid is hardly the place you'd expect to find
a Picasso museum. Yet it harbours what is probably the
most intimate exhibition of the Málaga-born artistic
genius's works.
The museum came about when Eugenio Arias, a
hairdresser by trade and a native of Buitrago,
unselfishly decided to keep gifts Pablo Picasso
had given him over two decades instead of selling them
and making himself a small fortune. Today the 60 strong
collection - located in a modest town hall salon which
is amply mirrored to make it seem bigger - includes
eccentrically original creations such as the ink water
colour Plato de Toritos Fritos, a
lithograph El Prisionero y La Paloma and a
small wooden box containing scissors, a comb and a pair
of clippers, into which bullfight motifs have been
etched with a hot iron.
It all began in France. In the aftermath of the
Spanish Civil War Picasso had moved to Paris, where he
stayed all through the WW II occupation without making
the slightest concession to the German invader and came
to be regarded as a symbol of anti-fascist defiance.
Unfortunately the number of constant visitors and
admirers to his Parisian studio make it impossible for
him to work so he moved to Vallauris in the South of
France where he concentrated on producing ceramic work.
Arias was operating a hairdressing salon in the same
town and the two men were finally introduced to each
other in Summer 1947 by the owner of the ceramics
workshop where Picasso prepared and baked his pottery,
Suzanne Ramié.
Both hit it off from the start: they had a similar
earthy temperament and sense of humour. "When I’m
with you I feel I’m in Spain," Picasso told his
newfound amigo. "He was genuine. He told the
truth," said Arias of the artist in return. The
hairdresser was only in his late twenties at this stage
of their relationship and looked on Picasso as a kind of
second father. Arias in return became the artist’s
other self. The fears and uncertainties he felt in other
circumstances vanished when Arias was around.
Previously, the artist’s multitude of
idiosyncracies had included believing, Samson-like, that
whoever possessed his hair would have some power over
him. He had even insisted that anything shorn from his
head should be wrapped in silk paper and hidden away in
drawers. After getting to know Arias he dropped these
habits and was content to let the barber sweep up the
scanty amounts shorn (he was nearly bald) and do with
them whatever he wanted. When people joked with him
about it being easy to cut Picasso’s hair because he
hardly had any, Arias riposted that it was more
difficult as you had to actually find the hairs before
you could begin cutting them.
Such was Picasso’s fame that whenever he visited
the barber’s salon, clients swarmed around just to see
him and many insisted on giving up their place to him.
Celebrities such as Jean Cocteau, Jacques Prévert and
Luis Miguel Dominguin – on his visits to France –
also came to have their hair cut and chat with the great
artist himself. Feeling ill at ease with this lack of
privacy and with what he regarded as unduly privileged
treatment, Picasso invited the hairdresser to attend to
him in his country villa "La Galloise". When
he realized this was a long way for Arias to come on a
regular basis the artist bought him a car to make the
journey easier. "It was a grey Renault Dauphine, a
truly marvellous present," recalls the barber, who
at 94 still lives in Vallauris.
Arias went to the house twice a week, ostensibly to
shave Picasso but more importantly to talk and shares
jokes and political views with him. Both were communists
and both had been at the 50th. Anniversary of
Spanish communists exiled in Toulouse in December 1945
when they had both greeted their Russian based leader
Dolores Ibárruri (La Pasionaria) without their own
paths actually crossing.
The more the artist and hairdresser got to know each
other the closer they became. Comparisons have aptly
been made with the rapport-relationship the Chilean poet
Pablo Neruda had with his postman when residing in
Italy. The Spanish duo were seen regularly out and about
together, especially at the bullfights in Arles and
Nîmes. When he moved to a new residence, "La
Californie", Picasso told Arias he could come to
see him whenever he liked. The hairdresser became his
confidant and guardian, acting as kind of a filter
between him and the public, entrusted with taking key
canvases to exhibitions and making decisions on the
artist’s’ behalf. It’s said that even La
Pasionaria’s successor, Santiago Carrillo, had to be
vetted by him before being able to contact Picasso. The
barber’s relationship with the former Communist party
secretary general also included creating a wig which
Carrillo used on clandestine visits to Spain. (Not that
this stopped him from being recognized and arrested in
1976, the year after Franco’s death).
Arias was allowed to do things that even members of
Picasso’s own family weren’t allowed to do. After
his beloved sister Conchita and the French
"vanguardiste" poet Guillaume Apollinaire
passed away no one could mention the word
"death" in his presence except the hairdresser
from Buitrago.
Picasso has suffered from a bad press ever since the
mid sixties when his then wife Francoise Guilot, mother
of Claude and Paloma, published the destructive
autobiography "Life With Picasso" (which was
also made into a James Ivory film starring the
chameleon-like Anthony Hopkins in yet another lifelike
portrayal.) An even worse mauling, entitled "My
Grandfather Picasso", came later on from his
granddaughter Marina. In both books he’s portrayed as
a monster who attempts to destroy or alienate everyone
he comes into contact with, especially women.
A belated attempt to set the record straight and show
the warm and generous side of his nature comes in a
recent book on his relationship with Arias written by
Monika Czernin and Melissa Müller and called
"Picasso’s Barber". The two authors claim
that Picasso actually came to feel more at home with
Arias - who could never be anything other than Spanish,
however long he lived in France - than with his own son
Paolo who because of his upbringing was quintessentially
French.
Picasso was a late riser so getting up before noon to
attend his hairdresser’s wedding in 1957 was not only
a supreme effort on his part but also confirmed the very
high regard in which he held his Spanish camarada.
Two sons, Pedro and Luis, were the result of this union,
and when the hairdresser’s parents were able to visit
Picasso the first torrijas the mother made were
for the artist. Arias’ mother, who Picasso saw for the
first time at the wedding, made such a strong impression
on him that she is said to have inspired his painting of
"La Espańola", used in 1960 as the poster of
a campaign in favour of the amnesty for communist
prisoners in Spain. When a copy of the lithograph was
sold at a London auction the proceeds went to the
Communist party.
When Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91 the
hairdresser wrapped him in a black cape which served as
a burial shroud, especially cut by Arias’ father who
was a tailor. Shortly afterwards he opened the museum in
Buitrago.
