QUICK VIEW:
Pablo
Picasso was the most dominant and influential artist of the first half
of the twentieth century. Associated most of all with pioneering Cubism, alongside Georges Braque, he also invented collage, and made major contributions to Symbolism, Surrealism,
and to the classical styles of the 1920s. He saw himself above all as
a painter, and yet his sculpture was greatly influential, and he also
explored areas as diverse as print-making and ceramics. Finally, he
was a famously charismatic personality: his many relationships with
women not only filtered into his art but may have directed its course;
and his behavior has come to embody that of the bohemian modern artist
in the popular imagination.
Key Ideas
- Picasso first emerged as a Symbolist influenced by the likes of Munch and Toulouse-Lautrec,
and this tendency shaped his so-called Blue Period, in which he
depicted beggars and prostitutes and various urban misfits, and also
the brighter moods of his subsequent Rose Period. - It was a confluence of influences - from Paul Cézanne and Henri Rousseau,
to archaic and tribal art - that encouraged Picasso to lend his
figures more weight and structure around 1906. And they ultimately set
him on the path towards Cubism,
in which he deconstructed the conventions of perspectival space that
had dominated painting since the Renaissance. These innovations would
have far-reaching consequences for practically all of modern art,
revolutionizing attitudes to the depiction of form in space. - Picasso's immersion in Cubism also eventually led him to the
invention of collage, in which he abandoned the idea of the picture as a
window on objects in the world, and began to conceive it merely as an
arrangement of signs which used different, sometimes metaphorical
means, to refer to those objects. This too would prove hugely
influential for decades to come. - Picasso had an eclectic attitude to style, and although, at any one
time, his work was usually characterized by a single dominant
approach, he often moved interchangeably between different styles -
sometimes even in the same artwork. - His encounter with Surrealism
in mid 1920s, although never transforming his work entirely,
encouraged a new expressionism which had been suppressed throughout
the years of experiment in Cubism and subsequently during the early
1920s when his style was predominantly classical. This development
enabled not only the soft forms and tender eroticism of his portraits
of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter, but also the starkly angular
imagery of Guernica, the century's most famous anti-war painting. - Picasso was always eager to place himself in history, and some of his greatest works, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,
refer to a wealth of past precedents - even while overturning them.
As he matured he became only more conscious of assuring his legacy, and
his late work is characterized by a frank dialogue with Old Masters
such as Ingres, Velazquez, Goya, and Rembrandt.
DETAILED VIEW:
Childhood
Pablo
Ruiz Picasso was born into a creative family. His father was a
painter, and he quickly showed signs of following the same path: his
mother claimed that his first word was "piz," a shortened version of lapiz,
or pencil; and his father would be his first teacher. Picasso began
formally studying art at the age of eleven. Several paintings from his
teenage years still exist, such as First Communion (1895), which
is typical in its conventional, if accomplished, academic style. His
father groomed the young prodigy to be a great artist by getting
Picasso the best education the family could afford, visiting Madrid to
see works by Spanish old masters. And when the family moved to
Barcelona, so his father could take up a new post, Picasso continued
his art education.
Ruiz Picasso was born into a creative family. His father was a
painter, and he quickly showed signs of following the same path: his
mother claimed that his first word was "piz," a shortened version of lapiz,
or pencil; and his father would be his first teacher. Picasso began
formally studying art at the age of eleven. Several paintings from his
teenage years still exist, such as First Communion (1895), which
is typical in its conventional, if accomplished, academic style. His
father groomed the young prodigy to be a great artist by getting
Picasso the best education the family could afford, visiting Madrid to
see works by Spanish old masters. And when the family moved to
Barcelona, so his father could take up a new post, Picasso continued
his art education.
Early Training
It
was in Barcelona that Picasso first matured as a painter. He
frequented the Els Quatre Gats, a cafe popular with bohemians,
anarchists, and modernists. And he came to be familiar with Art Nouveau and Symbolism, and artists such as Edvard Munch and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
It was here that he met Jaime Sabartes, who would go on to be his
fiercely loyal secretary in later years. This was his introduction to a
cultural avant-garde, in which young artists were encouraged to
express themselves.
During the years from 1900 to 1904 Picasso travelled frequently,
spending time in Madrid and Paris, in addition to spells in Barcelona.
Although he began making sculpture during this time, critics
characterize this time as his Blue Period, after the blue/grey palette
that dominated his paintings. The mood of the work was also insistently
melancholic. One might see the beginnings of this in the artist's
sadness over the suicide of Carlos Casegemas, a friend he has met in
Barcelona, though the subjects of much of the Blue Period work were
drawn from the beggars and prostitutes he encountered in city streets.
The Old Guitarist (1903) is a typical example of both the subject
matter and the style of this phase.
In 1904 Picasso's palette began to brighten, and for a year or more he
painted in a style that has been characterized as his Rose Period. He
focussed on performers and circus figures, switching his palette to
various shades of more uplifting reds and pinks. And around 1906, soon
after he had met Georges Braque, his palette darkened, his forms became heavier and more solid in aspect, and he began to find his way towards Cubism.
was in Barcelona that Picasso first matured as a painter. He
frequented the Els Quatre Gats, a cafe popular with bohemians,
anarchists, and modernists. And he came to be familiar with Art Nouveau and Symbolism, and artists such as Edvard Munch and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
It was here that he met Jaime Sabartes, who would go on to be his
fiercely loyal secretary in later years. This was his introduction to a
cultural avant-garde, in which young artists were encouraged to
express themselves.
During the years from 1900 to 1904 Picasso travelled frequently,
spending time in Madrid and Paris, in addition to spells in Barcelona.
Although he began making sculpture during this time, critics
characterize this time as his Blue Period, after the blue/grey palette
that dominated his paintings. The mood of the work was also insistently
melancholic. One might see the beginnings of this in the artist's
sadness over the suicide of Carlos Casegemas, a friend he has met in
Barcelona, though the subjects of much of the Blue Period work were
drawn from the beggars and prostitutes he encountered in city streets.
The Old Guitarist (1903) is a typical example of both the subject
matter and the style of this phase.
In 1904 Picasso's palette began to brighten, and for a year or more he
painted in a style that has been characterized as his Rose Period. He
focussed on performers and circus figures, switching his palette to
various shades of more uplifting reds and pinks. And around 1906, soon
after he had met Georges Braque, his palette darkened, his forms became heavier and more solid in aspect, and he began to find his way towards Cubism.
Mature Period
In
the past critics dated the beginnings of Cubism to his early
masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). Although that work is now
seen as transitional (lacking the radical distortions of his later
experiments), it was clearly crucial in his development since it was
heavily influenced by African sculpture and ancient Iberian art. It is
said to have inspired Braque to paint his own first series of Cubist
paintings, and in subsequent years the two would mount one of the most
remarkable collaborations in modern painting, sometimes eagerly
learning from each other, at other times trying to outdo one another in
their fast-paced and competitive race to innovate. They visited each
other daily during their formulation of this radical technique, and
Picasso described himself and Braque as "two mountaineers, roped
together." In their shared vision, multiple perspectives on an object
are depicted simultaneously by being fragmented and rearranged in
splintered configurations. Form and space became the most crucial
elements, and so both artists restricted their palettes to earth tones,
in stark contrast with the bright colors used by the Fauves that had preceded them.
Picasso rejected the label "Cubism," especially when critics began to
differentiate between the two key approaches he pursued - Analytic and
Synthetic. He saw his body of work as a continuum. But it is beyond
doubt that there was a change in his work around 1912. He became less
concerned with representing the placement of objects in space than in
using shapes and motifs as signs to playfully allude to their presence.
He developed the technique of collage, and from Braque he learned the
related method of papiers colles, which used cut-out pieces of
paper in addition to fragments of existing materials. This phase has
since come to be known as the "Synthetic" phase of Cubism, due to its
reliance on various allusions to an object in order to create the
description of it. This approach opened up the possibilities of more
decorative and playful compositions, and its versatility encouraged
Picasso to continue to utilise it well in the 1920s.
But the artist's dawning interest in ballet also sent his work in new
directions around 1916. This was in part prompted by meeting the poet,
artists and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Through him he met Serge Diaghilev, and went on to produce numerous set designs for the Ballets Russes.
For some years Picasso had occasionally toyed with classical imagery,
and he began to give this free rein in the early 1920s. His figures
became heavier and more massive, and he often imaging them against
backgrounds of a Mediterranean Golden Age. They have long been
associated with the wider conservative trends of culture's so-called rappel a l'ordre ("return to order") in the 1920s.
His encounter with Surrealism
in the mid 1920s again prompted a change of direction. His work became
more expressive, and often violent or erotic. This phase in his work
can also be correlated with the period in his personal life when his
marriage to dancer Olga Koklova began to break down and he began a new
relationship with Marie-Therese Walter. Indeed, critics have often
noted how changes in style in Picasso's work often go hand in hand with
changes in his romantic relationships: his partnership with Koklova
spanned the years of his interest in dance and, later, his time with
Jacqueline Roque is associated with his late phase in which he became
preoccupied with his legacy alongside the old masters. Picasso
frequently painted the women he was in love with, and as a result his
tumultuous personal life is well represented on canvas. He was known to
have kept many mistresses, most famously Eva Gouel, Dora Maar and
Francoise Gilot. He married twice, and had four children, Claude,
Paloma, Maia, and Paolo.
In the late 1920s he began a collaboration with the sculptor Julio Gonzalez.
This was his most significant creative partnership since he had worked
alongside Braque, and it culminated in some welded metal sculptures
which were subsequently highly influential.
As the 1930s wore on, political concerns began to cloud Picasso's view,
and these would continue to preoccupy him for some time. His disgust at
the bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica, during the
Spanish Civil War, prompted to create the painting Guernica, in
1937. During WWII he stayed in Paris, and the German authorities left
him sufficiently unmolested to allow him to continue work. However, the
war did have a huge impact on Picasso, with his Paris painting
collection confiscated by Nazis and some of his closest Jewish friends
killed. Picasso made works commemorating them - sculptures employing
hard, cold materials such as metal, and a particularly violent follow
up to Guernica, entitled The Charnel House (1945).
Following the war he was also closely involved with the Communist
Party, and several major pictures from this period, such as War in Korea (1951), make that new allegiance clear.
the past critics dated the beginnings of Cubism to his early
masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). Although that work is now
seen as transitional (lacking the radical distortions of his later
experiments), it was clearly crucial in his development since it was
heavily influenced by African sculpture and ancient Iberian art. It is
said to have inspired Braque to paint his own first series of Cubist
paintings, and in subsequent years the two would mount one of the most
remarkable collaborations in modern painting, sometimes eagerly
learning from each other, at other times trying to outdo one another in
their fast-paced and competitive race to innovate. They visited each
other daily during their formulation of this radical technique, and
Picasso described himself and Braque as "two mountaineers, roped
together." In their shared vision, multiple perspectives on an object
are depicted simultaneously by being fragmented and rearranged in
splintered configurations. Form and space became the most crucial
elements, and so both artists restricted their palettes to earth tones,
in stark contrast with the bright colors used by the Fauves that had preceded them.
Picasso rejected the label "Cubism," especially when critics began to
differentiate between the two key approaches he pursued - Analytic and
Synthetic. He saw his body of work as a continuum. But it is beyond
doubt that there was a change in his work around 1912. He became less
concerned with representing the placement of objects in space than in
using shapes and motifs as signs to playfully allude to their presence.
He developed the technique of collage, and from Braque he learned the
related method of papiers colles, which used cut-out pieces of
paper in addition to fragments of existing materials. This phase has
since come to be known as the "Synthetic" phase of Cubism, due to its
reliance on various allusions to an object in order to create the
description of it. This approach opened up the possibilities of more
decorative and playful compositions, and its versatility encouraged
Picasso to continue to utilise it well in the 1920s.
But the artist's dawning interest in ballet also sent his work in new
directions around 1916. This was in part prompted by meeting the poet,
artists and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Through him he met Serge Diaghilev, and went on to produce numerous set designs for the Ballets Russes.
For some years Picasso had occasionally toyed with classical imagery,
and he began to give this free rein in the early 1920s. His figures
became heavier and more massive, and he often imaging them against
backgrounds of a Mediterranean Golden Age. They have long been
associated with the wider conservative trends of culture's so-called rappel a l'ordre ("return to order") in the 1920s.
His encounter with Surrealism
in the mid 1920s again prompted a change of direction. His work became
more expressive, and often violent or erotic. This phase in his work
can also be correlated with the period in his personal life when his
marriage to dancer Olga Koklova began to break down and he began a new
relationship with Marie-Therese Walter. Indeed, critics have often
noted how changes in style in Picasso's work often go hand in hand with
changes in his romantic relationships: his partnership with Koklova
spanned the years of his interest in dance and, later, his time with
Jacqueline Roque is associated with his late phase in which he became
preoccupied with his legacy alongside the old masters. Picasso
frequently painted the women he was in love with, and as a result his
tumultuous personal life is well represented on canvas. He was known to
have kept many mistresses, most famously Eva Gouel, Dora Maar and
Francoise Gilot. He married twice, and had four children, Claude,
Paloma, Maia, and Paolo.
In the late 1920s he began a collaboration with the sculptor Julio Gonzalez.
This was his most significant creative partnership since he had worked
alongside Braque, and it culminated in some welded metal sculptures
which were subsequently highly influential.
As the 1930s wore on, political concerns began to cloud Picasso's view,
and these would continue to preoccupy him for some time. His disgust at
the bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica, during the
Spanish Civil War, prompted to create the painting Guernica, in
1937. During WWII he stayed in Paris, and the German authorities left
him sufficiently unmolested to allow him to continue work. However, the
war did have a huge impact on Picasso, with his Paris painting
collection confiscated by Nazis and some of his closest Jewish friends
killed. Picasso made works commemorating them - sculptures employing
hard, cold materials such as metal, and a particularly violent follow
up to Guernica, entitled The Charnel House (1945).
Following the war he was also closely involved with the Communist
Party, and several major pictures from this period, such as War in Korea (1951), make that new allegiance clear.
Late Years and Death
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Picasso worked on his own versions of canonical masterpieces by artists such as Nicolas Poussin, Lucas Cranach, Diego Velazquez, and El Greco.In the latter years of his life, Picasso sought solace from his
celebrity, marrying Jacqueline Rogue in 1961. His later paintings were
heavily portrait-based and their palettes nearly garish in hue. Critics
have generally considered them inferior to his earlier work, though in
recent years they have been more enthusiastically received. He also
created many ceramic and bronze sculptures during this later period.
He died in the South of France in 1973.
Legacy
Picasso's
influence was profound and far-reaching for most of his life. His work
in pioneering Cubism established a set of pictorial problems, devices
and approaches, which remained important well into the 1950s. And at
each stage of his career, from the classical works of the 1920s to the
works produced in occupied Paris during the 1940s, his example was
important. Even after the war, even though the energy in avant-garde art
shifted to New York, Picasso remained a titanic figure, and one who
could never be ignored. Indeed, even though the Abstract Expressionists
could be said to have superseded aspects of Cubism (even while being
strongly influenced by him), The Museum of Modern Art in New York has
been called "the house that Pablo built," because it has so widely
exhibited the artist's work. MoMA's opening exhibition in 1930 included
fifteen paintings by Picasso. He was also a part of Alfred Barr's highly influential survey shows, Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism.
Although his influence undoubtedly waned in the 1960s, he had by that
time become a Pop icon, and the public's fascination with his life
story continue to fuel interest in his work.
influence was profound and far-reaching for most of his life. His work
in pioneering Cubism established a set of pictorial problems, devices
and approaches, which remained important well into the 1950s. And at
each stage of his career, from the classical works of the 1920s to the
works produced in occupied Paris during the 1940s, his example was
important. Even after the war, even though the energy in avant-garde art
shifted to New York, Picasso remained a titanic figure, and one who
could never be ignored. Indeed, even though the Abstract Expressionists
could be said to have superseded aspects of Cubism (even while being
strongly influenced by him), The Museum of Modern Art in New York has
been called "the house that Pablo built," because it has so widely
exhibited the artist's work. MoMA's opening exhibition in 1930 included
fifteen paintings by Picasso. He was also a part of Alfred Barr's highly influential survey shows, Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism.
Although his influence undoubtedly waned in the 1960s, he had by that
time become a Pop icon, and the public's fascination with his life
story continue to fuel interest in his work.
ARTISTIC INFLUENCES:
Below are Pablo Picasso's major influences, and the people and ideas that he influenced in turn.
ARTISTS
Francisco Goya
El Greco
Paul Gauguin
Paul Cézanne
Henri Matisse
CRITICS/FRIENDS
Guillaume Apollinaire
Gertrude Stein
Georges Braque
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
Ambroise Vollard
MOVEMENTS
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Expressionism
Art Nouveau
African Art
Years Worked: 1892 - 1973
ARTISTS
Amedeo Modigliani
Arshile Gorky
Willem De Kooning
Jasper Johns
CRITICS/FRIENDS
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
Clement Greenberg
Meyer Schapiro
Robert Rosenblum
MOVEMENTS
Cubism
Abstract Art
Surrealism
Pop Art
Quotes
"Every act of creation is first an act of destruction."
"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we
must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is
no other route to success."
"For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography"
"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we
must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is
no other route to success."
"For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography"
Pablo Picasso
4/
5
Oleh
Unknown
Tinggalkan Jejak Anda Dengan Berkomentar