HAND-PAINTED PICASSO SHIRT
‘Pablo was in unstoppable high spirits by the time he hit the beach, thrilled at how his pictures of a wizened Narcissus licking his reflection in a frozen river were progressing that afternoon. He insists we ingest a bunch of mushrooms and watch the sun go down… Nothing happened for ages: we watched the waves crash and retreat back from the shore like children too nervous to disturb a giant; we watched that over and over again until I knew all the curlicues of foam upon the waves. But then a satyr stepped out of the sea! He was furry, golden-hoofed and diamond-eyed with horns like some huge monstrous goat. I hoped this wicked trick from the mushrooms would be swept out to sea whereas Pablo leapt up at once, yelling and singing to the creature like an intoxicated sailor. He said they were old friends! The satyr had blown kisses to him from a Cadillac on the streets of New York; he had encouraged him to set a house on fire, deep in a Spanish forest. Strange sweat drooled over me, a madman in my own secret jungle, as I watched Pablo dance with this mischievous mascot. Later, he drew the creature on my shirt, grinning all the time, and paying special attention to the monster’s epic penis.’
Excerpt from The Bull is On Fire: My Adventures with Picasso by Stephen Swanlake