Hunk of Skin

by Pablo Picasso

Published to celebrate forty years of City Lights publishing, which began with the letterpress printing of this book in 1955.

It was Lawrence Ferlinghetti's first book, and it has been reprinted twenty-one times, having never been out of print. The original edition contained the first twenty-seven poems to which the author has now added eighteen new verses.

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.
Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.
Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of like reading a Picasso painting—grotesque, oddly beautiful, disconcerting, anxious—but without the mastery, and maybe just too many words, even at a scant 39 pages.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picasso dashed off ten poems over two days in January 1959. The resulting 1968 publication by City Lights, bilingual and translated by Paul Blackburn, is rather ‘blah’. I found it helpful to think of the poems as written sketches of images.

I did have an issue with the translation, not so much with diction but rather the choice to break Picasso’s lines into ever smaller ones, I suppose in an attempt to separate images/phrases more distinctly, perhaps more orderly to the reader. I found it distracting and (if my supposition is correct) unsuccessful, as in this excerpt from the final poem:

9.1.59: IX

humo de hierba seca tio vivo alambres
piedra madera y cal vino tinto
solera aguardiente y conejo aceitunas
mesa silla botella vaso ladrillo arena
pimienta y sal limon naranja
camisa camiseta calzoncillo medias
y calcetines piedras y piedras y mas

smoke of dried herbs
merry-go-round
wires
stone
wood and whitewash
red wine
lees
hard liquor rabbit
olives table
chair bottle glass
brick
sand
black pepper and salt lemon
orange shirt
undershirt
under drawers stockings
and socks stones
and stones and more

[Selçuk Altun]

508) Resmin William Shakespeare’i Pablo Picasso’nun, minik bir şiir kitabı (Trozo de Piel, 1959) bulunduğunu herhalde bilmezdiniz. City Lights Books’un 1968’de, İspanyolca/İngilizce yayınladığı Hıınk of Skin 39 sayfadan mürekkep. (Cevat Çapan'a fotokopi göndersem mi?)

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better poetry than I thought it would be. Sometimes clunky and superficial, but the imagery is often quite arresting. No surprise that an artist can create clear poetic images. I think the translator did a wonderful job.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the book that inspired Juan Felipe Herrera to write Laughing Out Loud, I Fly and Herrera’s book inspired me to read Picasso’s. While I was fascinated by Herrera’s book, I was less thrilled with Picasso’s, probably because his Spanish childhood memories seem more distant to me as an American.

Online bibliographic information indicates that this edition contains illustrations, but if so, alas, my second-hand copy has none.

[Kienan Aguado · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited when I first picked up this book. How fking cool that Picasso has a book of poetry? Well... it's not really all that cool actually. It's just a ton of random words that didn't even evoke much imagery or excitement. Sad :/

[Freed]

very good