Pablo Picasso: works, features of style. Cubism Pablo Picasso

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

There is hardly a person on the planet who is not familiar with the name Pablo Picasso. The founder of cubism and an artist of many styles in the 20th century influenced the fine arts not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

Artist Pablo Picasso: childhood and years of study

One of the brightest artists of the 20th century was born in Malaga, in a house on Merced Square, in 1881, on October 25th. Now there is a museum and fund named after P. Picasso. Following the Spanish tradition at baptism, the parents gave the boy a rather long name, which is an alternation of the names of saints and the closest and most revered relatives in the family. Ultimately, he is known by his very first and last. Pablo decided to take his mother's surname, considering his father's too simple. The boy's talent and craving for drawing manifested itself from early childhood. The first and very valuable lessons were given to him by his father, who was also an artist. His name was Jose Ruiz. He painted his first serious picture at the age of eight - "Picador". We can safely say that it was with her that the work of Pablo Picasso began. The father of the future artist received a job offerteacher in La Coruña in 1891, and soon the family moved to the north of Spain. In the same place, Pablo studied at the local art school for a year. Then the family moved to one of the most beautiful cities - Barcelona. Young Picasso was 14 years old at the time, and he was too young to study at La Lonja (School of Fine Arts). However, the father was able to ensure that he was admitted to the entrance exams on a competitive basis, with which he coped brilliantly. After another four years, his parents decided to enroll him in the best advanced art school at that time - "San Fernando" in Madrid. Studying at the academy quickly bored the young talent; in its classical canons and rules, he was cramped and even bored. Therefore, he devoted more time to the Prado Museum and the study of its collections, and a year later he returned to Barcelona. Paintings painted in 1986 belong to the early period of his work: “Self-portrait” by Picasso, “First Communion” (it depicts the artist’s sister Lola), “Portrait of a mother” (pictured below).

During his stay in Madrid, he made his first trip to Paris, where he studied all the museums and the paintings of the greatest masters. Subsequently, he would come to this center of world art several times, and in 1904 he would finally move.

Blue Period

This time period can be regarded as a litmus test, it is at this time that Picasso's individuality, still subject to outside influence, begins to appear in the work. Known fact: the talent of creativenature manifests itself as brightly as possible in difficult life situations. This is exactly what happened to Pablo Picasso, whose works are now known to the whole world. The takeoff was instigated and came after a long depression caused by the death of close friend Carlos Casagemas. In 1901, at the exhibition organized by Vollard, 64 works by the artist were presented, but at that time they were still full of sensuality and brightness, the influence of the Impressionists was clearly felt. The “blue” period of his work gradually entered into its legal rights, manifesting itself with rigid contours of figures and the loss of three-dimensionality of the image, moving away from the classical laws of artistic perspective. The palette of colors on his canvases is becoming more and more monotonous, the emphasis is on blue. The beginning of the period can be considered "Portrait of Jaime Sabartes" and Picasso's self-portrait, painted in 1901.

Paintings of the "blue" period

The key words during this period for the master were such words as loneliness, fear, guilt, pain. In 1902, he will return to Barcelona again, but he will not be able to stay there. The tense situation in the capital of Catalonia, poverty on all sides and social injustice result in popular unrest, which gradually engulfed not only all of Spain, but also Europe. Probably, this state of affairs had an impact on the artist, who this year is working fruitfully and extremely hard. At home, masterpieces of the “blue” period are created: “Two sisters (Date)”, “An old Jew with a boy”, “Tragedy” (photo of the canvasabove), "Life", where once again the image of the deceased Casagemas appears. In 1901, the painting "The Absinthe Drinker" was also painted. It traces the influence of the popular at that time passion for "vicious" characters, characteristic of French art. The theme of absinthe sounds in many paintings. The work of Picasso, among other things, is full of drama. The hypertrophied hand of a woman, with which she seems to be trying to defend herself, catches the eye especially clearly. Currently, The Absinthe Drinker is stored in the Hermitage, having got there from a private and very impressive collection of Picasso's works (51 works) by S. I. Shchukin after the revolution.

As soon as the opportunity arises to go back to Paris, the artist decides to use it without hesitation and leaves Spain in the spring of 1904. It is there that he will encounter new interests, sensations and impressions, which will give rise to a new stage in his work.

"Pink" period

In the work of Picasso, this stage lasted a relatively long time - from 1904 (autumn) until the end of 1906 - and was not entirely homogeneous. Most of the paintings of the period are marked by a light range of colors, the appearance of ocher, pearl-gray, red-pink tones. Characteristic is the appearance and subsequent dominance of new themes for the artist's work - actors, circus performers and acrobats, athletes. Of course, the vast majority of the material was provided to him by the Medrano circus, which in those years was located at the foot of Montmartre. Bright theatrical atmosphere, costumes, behavior, a variety of types seemed to return P. Picasso tothe world, albeit transformed, but real forms and volumes, natural space. The images in his paintings again became sensual and filled with life, brightness, as opposed to the characters of the "blue" stage of creativity.

Pablo Picasso: works of the "pink" period

The paintings that marked the beginning of a new period were first exhibited at the end of the winter of 1905 in the Serurier Gallery - these are "Seated Nude" and "Actor". One of the recognized masterpieces of the "pink" period is "The Family of Comedians" (pictured above). The canvas has impressive dimensions - in height and width of more than two meters. The figures of circus performers are depicted against a blue sky, it is generally accepted that the harlequin on the right side is Picasso himself. All the characters are static, and there is no inner closeness between them, everyone was fettered by inner loneliness - the theme of the entire “pink” period. In addition, the following works by Pablo Picasso are worth noting: “Woman in a Shirt”, “Toilet”, “Boy Leading a Horse”, “Acrobats. Mother and son”, “Girl with a goat”. All of them demonstrate to the viewer the beauty and serenity rare for the artist's paintings. A new impetus in creativity happened at the end of 1906, when Picasso traveled around Spain and ended up in a small village in the Pyrenees.

African creative period

P. Picasso first encountered archaic African art at the thematic exhibition of the Trocadero Museum. He was impressed by pagan idols of primitive form, exotic masks and figurines, which embodied the great power of nature anddistanced from the smallest details. The artist's ideology coincided with this powerful message, and as a result, he began to simplify his characters, making them look like stone idols, monumental and sharp. However, the first work in the direction of this style appeared back in 1906 - this is a portrait of the work of Pablo Picasso by the writer Gertrude Stein. He rewrote the picture 80 times and already completely lost faith in the possibility of embodying her image in a classical style. This moment can rightfully be called transitional from following nature to deformation of the form. Just look at such canvases as "Nude Woman", "Dance with Veils", "Dryad", "Friendship", "Bust of a Sailor", "Self-Portrait".

But perhaps the most striking example of the African stage of Picasso's work is the painting "Avignon Girls" (pictured above), on which the master worked for about a year. She crowned this stage of the artist's creative path and largely determined the fate of art as a whole. For the first time, the canvas saw the light only thirty years after it was written and became an open door to the world of the avant-garde. The bohemian circle of Paris literally split into two camps: “for” and “against”. The painting is currently kept at the Museum of Modern Art in the City of New York.

Cubism in the works of Picasso

The problem of the uniqueness and accuracy of the image remained in first place in European fine art until the moment when cubism burst into it. The impetus for its development is considered by many to be the question that arose among artists: “Why paint?”At the beginning of the 20th century, almost anyone could be taught a reliable image of what you see, and photography was literally on the heels, which threatened to completely and completely displace everything else. Visual images become not only believable, but also accessible, easily replicated. Cubism of Pablo Picasso in this case reflects the individuality of the creator, refusing a plausible image of the outside world and opening up completely new possibilities, the boundaries of perception.

Early works include: “Pot, glass and book”, “Bathing”, “Bouquet of flowers in a gray jug”, “Bread and fruit bowl on the table”, etc. The canvases clearly show how the style of the artist changes and becomes more and more abstract towards the end of the period (1918-1919). For example, "Harlequin", "Three Musicians", "Still Life with Guitar" (pictured above). Associating the viewers of the master's work with abstractionism did not suit Picasso at all, the very emotional message of the paintings, their hidden meaning, was important to him. In the end, the cubism style he himself created ceased to gradually inspire and interest the artist, opening the way for new trends in creativity.

Classic period

The second decade of the 20th century was quite difficult for Picasso. So, 1911 was marked by a story with stolen figurines from the Louvre, which did not put the artist in the best light. In 1914, it turned out that, even after living in the country for so many years, Picasso was not ready to fight for France in the First World War, which divorced him from many friends. And inthe following year, his beloved Marcel Humbert died.

Many external factors also influenced the return of a more realistic Pablo Picasso in his work, whose works were again filled with readability, figurativeness and artistic logic. Including a trip to Rome, where he was imbued with ancient art, as well as communication with the Diaghilev ballet troupe and acquaintance with the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who soon became the second wife of the artist. The beginning of a new period can be considered her portrait of 1917, which in some way was of an experimental nature. The Russian ballet of Pablo Picasso not only inspired the creation of new masterpieces, but also gave his beloved and long-awaited son. The most famous works of the period: Olga Khokhlova (pictured above), Pierrot, Still Life with Jug and Apples, Sleeping Peasants, Mother and Child, Women Running on the Beach, Three Graces.

Surrealism

The division of creativity is nothing but the desire to sort it out and squeeze it into certain (stylistic, temporal) frames. However, to the work of Pablo Picasso, whose famous paintings adorn the best museums and galleries in the world, this approach can be called very conditional. If you follow the chronology, then the period when the artist was close to surrealism falls on 1925-1932. It is not at all surprising that the muse visited the master of the brush at every stage of his work, and when O. Khokhlova wished to recognize herself on his canvases, he turned to neoclassicism. However, creative people are fickle, and soon into the life of Picassothe young and very beautiful Maria Teresa W alter entered, who at the time of their acquaintance was only 17 years old. She was destined for the role of a mistress, and in 1930 the artist bought a castle in Normandy, which became a home for her, and a workshop for him. Maria Teresa was a faithful companion, steadfastly enduring the creative and loving throwing of the creator, maintaining friendly correspondence until the death of Pablo Picasso. Works from the Surrealist period: "Dance", "Woman in an Armchair" (pictured below), "Bather", "Nude on the Beach", "Dream", etc.

World War II period

Picasso's sympathy during the war in Spain in 1937 belonged to the Republicans. When Italian and German aircraft destroyed Guernica, the political and cultural center of the Basques, in the same year, Pablo Picasso depicted the city in ruins on a huge canvas of the same name in just two months. He was literally seized with horror from the threat that hung over the whole of Europe, which could not but affect his work. Emotions were not expressed directly, but embodied in the tone, its gloominess, bitterness and sarcasm.

After the wars died down, and the world came to a relative balance, restoring everything that had been destroyed, Picasso's work also acquired happier and brighter colors. His canvases, written in 1945-1955, have a Mediterranean flavor, are very atmospheric and partly idealistic. At the same time, he began to work with ceramics, creating many decorative jugs, dishes, plates,figurines (photo above). The works that were created in the last 15 years of life are very uneven in style and quality.

One of the greatest artists of the twentieth century - Pablo Picasso - died at the age of 91 in his villa in France. He was buried near the Vovenart castle that belonged to him.