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