PABLO PICASSO
Why he is of special recognation
PABLO PICASSO
• Picasso was in the news most recently for the sale of a 1905 oil painting titled Garcon à la Pipe (Boy with a
pipe) at Sotheby's auction house on May 5, 2004. What was the selling price for the early Rose Period
canvas, painted when Picasso was 24? Including buyer's commission it went for $104.168 million. At 39 x
32", that computes to more than $80,000 per square inch which just goes to show you that not everything in
the art world is going to be easily explainable or understandable. On May 3, 2006 Picasso's portrait of
Dora Maar sold for $95.2 million. An etching of her is in this exhibition.
• Incidentally, the Whitney's who bought the painting in 1950 paid $30,000 for it which at today's prices
would be worth about $230,000.
• One of the more famous paintings that Picasso created was "Guernica", painted in 1937 for the Spanish
Pavilion of the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. The large canvas in shades of gray depicted the
inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. The painting was Picasso's response to the German's blitz of
the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso exaggerated the depictions of the
figures within the painting to strengthen the conveyance of anger that the painting elicited.
PABLO PICASSO
• One of he most pivotal works that Picasso created was his eight-foot tall Les Demoiselles d' Avignon in 1907. Highly
influenced by the African and Iberian art Picasso saw, he created this new painting with cubist elements and angularities
and harshness that had not appeared in paintings before. Although Picasso had many critics, it was clear that Picasso was
on the verge of becoming a significant force in modern art by virtue of his unique vision and uncanny ability to see things
with an eye unlike any other before him.
• Many people heard of Cubism but are not sure what it is or was. In 1910 Picasso developed a new means of pictorial
expression unlike any before him (although Georges Braque was working in the same direction at the same time).
Picasso deconstructed objects into their components so that different viewpoints are juxtaposed and seen in one plane. A
conceptual image rather than perceptual image on an object was created through this analytical cubist presentation. You
will observe in this exhibition many objects which are viewed from multiple vantage points. You will see a vase or vessel
from both the bird's eye view, the frontal view, and perhaps a side view -- but all in a single plane. That is what Cubism put
on the easel of 20th century art. You will see in this exhibition images of figures from multiple vantage points but all from a
single view. Such was the essence behind the deconstructive aspects of Cubism.
PABLO PICASSO CONTRIBUTION TO ART
AND CULTURE
• Art is a form of expression unlike any other, a gift for the eyes that only words can hint
at. Since it’s creation, art has certainly flourished over a long period of time, changing
not only the way people look at it, but also the meaning behind why they look at it.
What started out as a small pleasure has influenced our world in more ways than one.
One of the most important figures in modern art who has certainly aided the advance
of his prime is Pablo Picasso. From his notorious paintings to the invention of cubism,
Picasso’s accomplishments have certainly made a large impact on not only history
itself, but also the present world that we live in today. He was a rare talent in history; a
bona fide being whose craft not only spoke for himself, but for everyone else who
embraced his artistry.
PABLO PICASSO CONTRIBUTION TO ART
AND CULTURE
• One of the most important roles in the development of modern art was Cubism. Cubism was created
by Picasso himself along with Georges Braque and had a huge impact on the world because this new
painting style provided a different way of seeing. The origins of cubism started off with just one
painting by Picasso. It was one of the biggest paintings that he had ever done and featured five
women, each whose head looked as if it was on backwards. The painting was named “Les
Demoiselles D’Avignon” which in English means the young ladies of Avignon. The five women
portrayed were very ugly and distorted; they looked as if they were going to fall into pieces. It had
caused a controversy with many people because they thought that it should have looked more
realistic and professionally done rather than a mockery to art itself. Picasso had broken all the rules
while creating this painting, but his only main goal in mind was to try and paint the women from
more than one angle at a time, hoping that the viewer saw more than what meet the eye. Though it
was heavily criticized throughout history, today it has been called the first modern twentieth century
painting. Picasso broke away from tradition, setting his own guide for what he believed was art.
PICASSO CONTRIBUTION TO ART AND
CULTURE.
• In art, his re-thinking of the rules of perspective changed the way that artists looked at the world.
Picasso saw that although we can only see one side of an object the other sides exist at the same
time - so he painted them. He also had fused African tribal art - notably masks - with his art, creating
a new visual alphabet.
• But arguably his greatest significance is his response to the first aerial bombing of a civilian
population in times of war, the flattening of the city of Guernica in Spain. He painted the extraordinary work, Guernica, a huge, mostly grey, black and white, painting full of symbols, metaphor
and metaphors for suffering. He removed it from Spain, and refused to let it back into the country
until democracy was restored, after the Fascist General Franco had won the civil war in 1939. It
finally returned to Spain in 1992. The painting is a visual reminder of the horrors of war, fascism, and
the suffering of ordinary citizens.
PICASSO CONTRIBUTION TO ART AND
CULTURE.
• The third reason is that he made the artist like a rock star, he ushered in the age of celebrity artist.
No longer did artists feel like they should be struggling in a shabby garret in Paris, they could
socialise with kings, princes and models. They could feel at home in Monte Carlo or in New York
high society, and they could advertise products in magazines, on television and in the cinema. Andy
Warhol, Damian Hurst and even Banksey have become household names because Picasso realised
that the artist themselves can be the art.
• What has made Picasso different from other artists of his time was that his art not only reflected his
emotions in his own personal life, but the outside world as well. He was not afraid to push the
boundaries of the human mind from issues such as war to peace. One of the issues that he painted
was present in the Spanish civil war, a military revolt against the Republican government of Spain; it
was an outcome of a polarization in Spanish life and politics that had developed over the previous
decades
EXAMPLE PABLO
PICASSO ART
WORK
This is a sample of Pablo Picasso art work of a weeping
woman
In it the emotion of grief is expressed with great concentration
and intensity through both form and color. The focus of the
composition is the jagged area of hard blue and white forms
around the mouth and teeth, clenched savagely on a
handkerchief. Above, the eyes and forehead are also
fragmented and dislocated, and the woman appears almost
literally 'broken up' with grief. The harshness of the forms is
echoed by the harshness of the colors, the face, neck and hand
painted in acid, incongruous, yellow and mauve and green,
colors perhaps of putrefaction and decay. The yellow and
mauve however, are complementary colors, as are the blue
and orange-red of the woman's hat. The background,
furthermore, is painted in strong yellows, contrasting with the
blues of the hat and the blues and mauves of the hair, and
Picasso enormously heightens the impact of the painting by
the almost paradoxical brilliance and vibrancy of its color
scheme.
REFERENCES
• Blizzard, A. (2004). Portraits of the 20th century self : an interartistic study of Gertrude
Stein's literary portraits and early Modernist portraits by Paul Cézanne, Henri
Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. New York: Frankfurt am Main .
• Picasso, P., & Clavell, X. C. (1982). Picasso : Picassso Museum, Barcelona : photogr.
report, complemented by a biogr. of the painter. Barcelona: Barcelona : Ed. Escudo de
Oro, 1982.
• Spies, W., Piot, C., Pic