Pablo Picasso Essay, Research Paper

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. By the age of 15 he was already technically skilled in drawing and painting. Picasso’s original style continuously evolved throughout his long career, and expanded the definition of what art could be. In addition to painting, he explored sculpture, ceramics and other art forms, and became one of the most influential artists of the 1900s.

Paintings from Picasso’s blue period, which was from 1901 to 1904, depicted forlorn people painted in shades of blue, evoking feelings of sadness and alienation. The suicide of a fellow painter, Carles Casagemas, had a profound effect on Picasso, and it has been said that the tragic event precipitated the adoption of a predominately somber blue palette. An example of Picasso?s blue period paintings is ?Woman with Bangs.? This painting symbolizes Picasso?s production in this period. It is showing a dark-haired woman with downcast, unfocused eyes lost in a reverie. The simplicity of her surroundings and attire give emphasis to her face, with its expression of profound dejection.

With his permanent return to France in 1904, Picasso?s colors gradually changed, evolving into the delicate pink and flesh tones of his Rose Period, which prevailed during the next two years. Picasso’s rose period paintings took on a warmer more optimistic mood. An example of a painting done during his rose period is ?Mother and Child.? This painting, which is more a drawing in oil, captures a tender moment between mother and child. Both in composition and in theme, the work is reminiscent of Renaissance paintings of the Madonna.

Many Influences in Picasso?s life finally came together in a painting he worked on from early 1907 through July. After filling seven sketchbooks and doing seventeen studies in preparation, he painted ?Les Demoiselles d?Avignon? and is considered the first Cubist painting. The nudes in this painting are women of a bordello on Avignon, a street in Barcelona. These women are painted in straight lines and flat overlapping planes, or surfaces, making the women seem almost weightless. Although Picasso?s cubism innovations first shocked both artists and viewers, thousands of artists and designers, and even architects, have been influenced by Cubism, and millions of viewers have attended his exhibitions. Cubism spread throughout the Western World. While others imitated Cubism or took it in new directions, Picasso went on to new ways of painting.

By 1912 Picasso was incorporating newspaper print, postage stamps and other materials into his paintings. This style is called collage. By the late 1920s he turned toward a flat, cubist-related style. During the 1930s his paintings became militant and political. Guernica, which was painted in1937, is a masterpiece from this period depicts the terror of the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war.

Following World War II, Picasso’s work became less political and more gentle. He spent the remaining years of his life in an exploration of various historical styles of art, making several reproductions of the work of earlier artists. Picasso died in Paris in 1973.

Picasso brought many changes to art by presenting two views of the same object in one picture. In reality a viewer would see two views at different times; in Picasso?s pictures they are seen at the same time. To his time in history, Picasso gave his art a visual symbol of the human spirit in its search for truth, freedom, and perfection.