Pablo Picasso

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Pablo Picasso Chapter 21 Group 9B Art 1107
Section 7 Christopher Coppock presentation,
oral review Group Manager Christopher Coppock
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Pablo Picasso is perhaps one of the most diverse
and interesting artists of modern times. He was
a sculptor, painter, and even in some ways a
political activist as we saw in the book with the
painting Guernica, pictured above.
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Lola Picasso, soeur de lartiste . Oil on
Canvas. 1894 Pablo Picasso
To give a bit of background information, Picasso
was born in 1881 in Spain. His father was
already a well respected artist and instructor.
He basically started his art career early in life
at the age of 14. He studied in some of the
worlds most prestigious schools, including La
Lonja, after passing a rigorous entrance exam.
Pictured above is an example of the artists
early work. Oddly enough paintings such as what
we see here are rarely associated with Picasso.
As you can see there is a much more literal and
realistic quality to the image we see here of a
woman staring blankly into space at some unknown
focal point. Her clothing marks the period in
which she was painted, and the colors of the
paint seem to suggest and earthy tone to her
surroundings, as well as presenting the illusion
of slight illumination to her face. Upon closer
examination you can almost see some signs of
aging, particularly around the mouth area which
indicates this woman may be middle-aged as
opposed to the typical youthful beauty that is
the subject of most paintings.
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Miséreuse accroupie. Oil on Canvas 1901 Pablo
Picasso
More closely associated with Picasso are the
numerous stages (periods) attributed to his
artistic life. These include the Blue period
in which his paintings seemed to have a
depressive and darkly dim attribute to them.
Here we have a piece from that period. The woman
above is expressed with dark blues and grays and
browns, with no warm or light colors to relieve
the dark mood she projects.Her form is created in
heavy darkened lines, which suit to make the
painting even more disturbing and depressing,
while giving her form a much more defined look.
Her face seems to show despair and indifference
to her surroundings. Perhaps she is homeless and
starving in the streets, looking for someplace to
protect her from the cold, which is suggested by
the heavy wrappings of clothes she is wearing.
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Portrait de Madame Benedetta Canals Oil on
Canvas 1905 Pablo Picasso
In contrast, the Rose period was marked by
light warm colors and more whimsical subjects,
such as the lovely woman above. As in his
earlier paintings, the woman appears to be older
and more mature than the young girls pictured in
many artists paintings. Contrary to the
previous painting, we see that this woman has a
much more distinguished face and the expression
seems to be more of a proud and refined look, not
the broken spirit look of the woman in the
street. Her clothing appears to be expensive and
clean, and she has the look of a woman well cared
for.
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Paysage de Céret Charcoal, Pastel, and
Paper 1913 Pablo Picasso
Picasso is probably most know for Cubism. The
basis of cubism is to take a subject and reduce
it to simple geometric shapes which are
reorganized to produce an image. Unlike previous
periods of Picassos art career, cubism seemed to
have a much more varied and diverse set of
subject matters. As you can see above, this
painting is of a set of buildings. Of the 2
buildings pictured, the leftmost one sparks the
most interest. Although there are windows, the
actual lines creating the walls are not there.
Instead the placement of trees and the small
outline of a roof cause the viewer to create
walls to fill in the void. This is a diversion
from the usual human subjects in most of the
other periods.
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Barque Pen and Ink on Brown Paper 1910 Pablo
Picasso
Another cubism example. Here we see what might
at first be perceived as a ship with its
reflection on the water, but looking closer we
see that instead of a mirror image we have 2
images of the same perspective. The top boat
image appears to be a much more literal view of
the boat, while the bottom is a simple
representation of the same image, with fewer
details and a much simpler design. Perhaps this
image serves to explain cubism, by showing the
methodology in which cubism places less emphasis
on exact detail and more on the essence of the
subject.
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Femme en chemise dans un fauteuil Watercolor and
Crayon 1913 Pablo Picasso
The above painting illustrates a return to female
subjects. As you can see, this appears to be a
semi-nude with disproportionate arms and legs.
The face lacks any recognizable features. The
bright colors accentuate the lightened mood of
the painting, and the simple shapes act to draw
attention to the larger more defined areas, such
as the leg the woman pictured is resting on.
Behind her seems to be two halves of a chair with
one of them being raised from the floor somewhat.
Although we cannot make out any real facial
detail, the hair is pictured flowing over the
womans shoulders and over her front.
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Cruche, bol et citron Oil on Panel 1907 Pablo
Picasso
Picasso had many other periods in which he
improvised new forms of artistic expression. A
familiar artistic subject is the famous fruit
basket. This image however, created during
Picassos period of Surrealism, is a step away
from the norm when it comes to fruit portraits.
We see only one fruit, a lemon, laying beside a
basket and a vase, and surrounded by bright
contrasting colors and shadows. The painting
attacks the viewers senses with the angular,
rough brushstrokes and broad lines as well as the
highly contrasting colors of the fruit, basket,
and vase.
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Femme lisant Charcoal and Oil on
Canvas 1920 Pablo Picasso
Heres another example of a lesser known work
Picasso created during the period known as
Classicism. This is probably one of my personal
favorites simply because it lacks the symbolism
and implied meaning of some of his other works,
and relies on simplicity and appeals to the
peaceful aspect of the viewer. The woman in the
picture seems calm and relaxed in her robe
reading her book in a comfortable chair. No
hidden meanings or derived understanding of a
greater concept, simply a woman reading a book.
Even the colors are simple charcoal and white.
No odd variations of yellow or loud reds and
blues. You can almost feel the peace implied by
the womans expression.
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Pierrot Oil on Canvas 1918 Pablo Picasso
This is another classicism work by Picasso that
revolves around what appears to be a jester or
clown. Ironically the expression on the
entertainer is somewhat melancholy and lacks the
jovial display we would expect from a person of
this profession. Although there appears to be
quite a bit of contrast in the coloring and
design, the painting lacks some of the color
boldness of some of Picassos more abstracted
works. In addition, more detail seems to have
been applied to give the appearance of a ruffled
texture on the clowns garments.
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Paysage à l'arbre mort et vif Oil on
Canvas 1919 Pablo Picasso
The above painting is another fine example of
Picassos less-recognized art, again during his
classicism period. This time he has chosen a
landscape, and unlike the flat representations of
his cubist works, this painting tends to lend
itself to an almost multi-dimensional appearance,
signified by the artificial curvature of the
trees created by different highlights on the
trunk, as well as the shading of the clouds in
the sky. We also find that Picasso has relied on
simple earth tones bringing a warm comfortable
appearance to the tiny village we see displayed
here.
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Autoportrait à la palette Oil on
Canvas 1906 Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picassos life was marked with many
relationships. It is often thought that the Blue
Period had ended as a result of his meeting
Fernande Olivier. Picasso later married Russian
dancer Olga Koklova. Several later relationships
involved artists from other genres including a
painter and photographer. This instability in
his social and private life may have created the
different moods that inspired his work, whether
lighthearted or dark and dreary. At any rate,
the artist lived a very long life from 1881-1973,
even after a prostate operation. Debate
continues to revolve around the authenticity of
his work, which was present even in his living
years. However, Picassos name today remains
synonymous with modern art. The picture shown
above is a self portrait of Picasso created
during his Rose period.
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Computer Reproduction
Original
Too often in the art world we tend to make
general statements regarding the level of
complexity of a painting, giving simple ones like
the one above too little credit. To truly
appreciate such art, the easiest way to
understand how difficult and truly impressive a
piece of work can be is to try and reproduce it.
Using a PC and Microsoft Paint I tried to do such
a reproduction on one of Picassos cubist
paintings. Obviously, although similar it was
not only difficult to reproduce, but the end
result did not turn out as I had hoped. Matching
the coloring scheme proved to be nearly
impossible. The brush strokes were not as
defined, and the shading was not easily created
using the mouse on the program. On the plus
side, I assume that it must have been much easier
to create geometric shapes on my side, using the
boxes that are already a part of the toolbox.
Proportions ended up being a challenge as well.
One thing youll notice is that although I tried
to keep the aspect ratio similar, the vase ended
up being too short to reach the window, and
changing it would throw off the entire image.
Keeping in mind that Picasso used nothing but
conventional art tools, I have a new appreciation
for abstract art forms.
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References Pablo Picasso. The Artist and His
Model 180 Drawings. Dover Publications.
1995. Ingrid Schaffner. The Essential Pablo
Picaso. Harry Abrams Inc. 1999. Dr. Enrique
Mallen. The Online Picasso Project.
http//www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/