The Four Little Girls and Desire Caught by the Tail

Picasso’s Surreal Stage: Desire Caught by the Tail & The Four Little Girls

In the 1940s, Picasso penned two plays in French. Desire Caught by the Tail, conceived during the German occupation of Paris, unveils a grotesque cast of allegorical characters – the Onion, Silence, Fat Anxiety – as they grapple with wartime hunger, cold, and love.

The Four Little Girls, written post-war on the French Riviera, presents the stream-of-consciousness musings of four …