Picasso Art Article

OLASTIC
MARCH 2009
Vol. 39 No. 5 ISSN 1060-S32X
www.scholastic.com
WORKING Wl 'H CUBISM

2 SCHOLASTIC ART* 2009
A NEW ARTIST
FOR A NEW
CENTURY
"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should
I paint pictures that do?" —Pablo Picasso
This self-portrait marks one of Picasso's
early experiments with simplifying the
forms of the face.
Cover: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Self-Portrail. 1906. Oil on canvas
mounted on wood, 10 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,
1998 (1999.363.59). Photo: Malcolm Varon. The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, NY, U.S.A. Photo Credit: Image copyright © The Metropolitan
Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY. © 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso /
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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W! page with the painting below
hen you compare the drawing
on the top of the opposite
it, it's hard to believe that they were created
by the same artist. Pablo Picasso
made the pastel drawing in 1896,
when he was 15. It is a highly
traditional, realistic portrait of his
mother seen in profile.
The painting below it, a head
study, barely registers as a human
face. It is simplified and abstracted,
with shifting viewpoints. Staring
eyes shown from a frontal view loom
over a nose, mouth, and chin shown
from the side and facing in opposite
directions. By 1971, when this work
was created, Pablo Picasso was the
most famous artist in the world, and
his work had revolutionized art.
A "Why should the Born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso grew up in a
artist persist in treating modern age full of new ideas and theories. In 1899, Sigmund
Freud, the father of psychology, began publishing
subjects that can be
established so clearly
with the lens of a camera?"
-Pablo Picasso mind. Six years later, Albert Einstein's scientific theo-
books that opened up the hidden world of the human
Photograph of Picasso with ^Aficionado. ries revolutionized our understanding of time and space.
Sorgues, 1912. DP 22; AP PH 2861. Photo:
Coursaget. Musee Picasso, Paris, France. Each man in his own way seemed to be saying that reality
looks different from different points of view.
Reunion des Musees Nationaux / Art Resource,
NY. © 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso
/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
At the same time, new technologies were making
painters question the point of realistic art. Why paint what you see when you
can reproduce it more easily with a photograph or
movie? What could painting offer that photography
could not?
While the art world was searching for answers
to these questions, Picasso was learning the techniques
of traditional drawing and painting. An un-
> "Who sees the human face
correctly: the photographer,
the mirror, or the painter?"
-Pablo Picasso
Head, Sunday, 1971 (October 3). Oil on canvas, 73 x 60
cm. Musee Picasso, Paris / The Bridgeman Art Library.
19 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York.

»• Picasso drew this pastel
portrait of his mother when
he was 15.
Maria Picasso Lope* the Artists Mater, 1896.
Pastel on paper. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Spain.
Photo Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudor / Art Resource.
NY. © 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), Ne» Yoik.
usually gifted child, Pablo could
draw even before he could walk
or talk. His father, Don Jose,
was a painter who created realistic,
decorative works. By the
time Pablo was 9, he was painting
alongside his father. One day, Pablo finished a painting
so perfectly that Don Jose handed over his brushes
and swore never to paint again.
But Don Jose continued to teach. In 1895 he moved his
family to Barcelona so that he could teach at the Academy
of Fine Arts. At 14, Pablo was considered too young for
the Academy but was allowed to take the entrance exam,
a series of difficult exercises that took most applicants a
month to complete. Pablo completed them in one day—
astonishing the professors—and was admitted.
Around this time, Pablo drew the pastel portrait of
his mother, Maria (right), in the traditional style taught
at the Academy. In this portrait, Picasso uses modeling
and shading to create the illusion of form. He creates
realistic color and a range of shadows, mid-tones, and
highlights by blending dark and light-colored pastels.
The billowy, organic shapes of the figure make it seem
soft and comforting.
In spite of his gifts, or maybe because of them, Pablo
became bored with the rigid rules of the academy and
looked for ways to broaden his horizons. Soon he would
get his chance.
The year was 1900, the start of a new century, and
Picasso was 19. He had traveled to Paris to show a painting
at the World's Fair, a giant exhibition where 50 million
visitors flocked to see the latest achievements in
technology and culture from all over the world. There,
for the first time, visitors could watch a movie and hear
the actors speak instead of having to read the dialogue on
the screen. They could take a virtual balloon ride, watch
the sky through a giant telescope, and stroll through a
massive exhibition hall where Picasso's work hung among
more than 5,000 paintings from 29 countries.
Filled with curiosity, Picasso eagerly took in all the city
had to offer. He combed through museums and galleries
to study Impressionist paintings, Egyptian art, and Japanese
prints. He frequented the city's cafes and nightclubs,
where artists and intellectuals gathered to share ideas.
When Picasso finally moved to Paris, his passion for
learning and discovery helped him build the foundation
for his own revolution in art.
MARCH 2009 • SCHOLASTIC ART 3

T
_
HE CUBIST
REVOLUTION
"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." —Pablo Picasso
When Picasso
moved to Paris
in 1904, he was
already well known and
respected for his painting,
drawing, graphic art, and
sculpture. But he felt stifled
by traditional realism. He
wanted more freedom, and
a more imaginative way to
express himself.
In the self-portrait on the
cover, Picasso experiments
with heavy black lines, using
them to outline the forms
of his face. But it was not
until 1907, when he visited
a museum of non-Western
art in Paris, that he found
the inspiration that led him
to invent Cubism.
It was there that he first
saw African masks like the
one on page 10. He was
fascinated with the way
these masks simplified forms
and divided them into flat
planes. The masks also
showed Picasso a fresh way
to think about art. Instead of
trying to create realistic copies
of faces, the artists who
made these masks interpreted
what they saw. They distorted facial features to express
emotions and qualities like humor or fierceness. Picasso
called African art an "art of reason" because he thought
African artists depicted not what they saw, but what they
thought and felt.
African masks had an immediate influence on Picasso's
work. He too wanted to make art that showed what
A SCHOLASTIC ART* 2009
he saw not with his eyes but
with his mind. In the study of
a woman's head seen above,
Picasso has simplified the
complex structure of a woman's
face into basic geometric
forms. Her face has become
A In what ways does this
woman's face resemble the
African mask on page 10?
Bust of a Woman: Study lor Demoiselles D'Avignon,
France, 1907. Oil on canvas, .660 m x .590 m. Musee
National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris, France. Photo Credit: CNAC / MNAM / Dist.
Reunion des Musees Nationaux / Art Resource, NY. ©
2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York.

« "Are we to paint what's on the face,
what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"
-Pablo Picasso
Man with a Violin, 1911-1912. Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 2813/16 in. The Louise and Walter
Arensberg Collection, 1950. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Photo Credit: The Philadelphia Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY. (9 2009 Estate of Pablo
Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
made out: an ear seen from the side,
a mouth seen from the front, and a violin
seen from different angles. Other
elements could represent a chin, nose,
or eyes seen from many points of view.
He limited his palette to dark, dull colors
to focus the viewer's attention on
the shapes and composition.
Picasso worked in this style for several
years. But he eventually realized
that his subjects were becoming overanalyzed,
his compositions too complex,
and all of his paintings were beginning
to look the same. He then began to
paste fragments of real objects onto his
paintings and drawings—scraps of wallpaper,
old postcards, even sprinklings
of sand. Man With a Hat (below) has a
refreshingly childlike quality. Made with
simple shapes cut from colored paper
and scraps of newspaper, it was Picasso's
next new contribution to art—one
of the first collages ever created.
an oval, and her nose has become a triangle that juts out
much like the nose of the African mask on page 10.
Picasso's next step went beyond simplification. Traditional
art shows its subjects from a single point of view.
An artist drawing a model in profile knows the model has
two ears, even though only one ear is visible. With Cubism,
Picasso sought to create art that depicted objects as
he knew them to be, showing all of their sides at once.
To do this, he combined fragments of different points
of view into a single image.
In Man With a Violin (above), Picasso painted a jumble
of overlapping, translucent planes that he tilted and
shifted to make them intersect at random angles. The
subject is almost unrecognizable, but a few details can be
»> Working
with collage
allowed Picasso
to quickly test
different compositions
by
shifting paper
around.
Man mf/i a Hat, after
December 3,1912. Pasted
paper, charcoal and ink on
paper, 241/2 x 18 5/8 in.
Purchase. (274.1937) The
Museum of Modern Art, New
York. NY, USA Photo Credit
Digital Image (c) The Museum
of Modem Art / Licensed by
SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
® 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso
/ Artists Rights Society
(ARS). New York.
MARCH 2009 • SCHOLASTIC ART 5

CUBISM COMES
FULL CIRCLE
"You can try anything in painting.
You even have a right to, provided you never do it again." —Pablo Picasso
Picasso became fascinated with dance and theater
in 1917, when he was invited to design sets and
costumes for the Ballet Russes (ba-LEY roos)—the
most important dance company of the day. Picasso hated
being tied down to any one style. Working in another
medium gave him a chance to experiment with new
techniques. Collage had also opened up a world of new
possibilities. The flatness of the cut-out shapes inspired
Picasso to simplify his compostions. The bright colors and
patterns of different kinds of paper inspired him to rein-
troduce color and pattern into his paintings.
Pierrot and Harlequin (pye-RO and HAR-luh-quin)
(pages 8—9), which Picasso painted in 1920, and Three
Musicians (left), painted in 1921, show the influence of
working with both the Ballet Russes and collage. In both
paintings, Pierrot and Harlequin, traditional theater characters,
are seen from a frontal point of view and placed
in spaces that resemble a shallow stage set. Like Picasso's
collages, these paintings have no modeling, perspective,
or depth. They are simpler and more colorful than Pica-
A "You work with few colors. But they seem
like a lot more when each one is in the right
place." -Pablo Picasso
Three Musicians, Fontainebleau, summer 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 7" x 7' 3 3/4". Mrs, Simon
Guggenheim Fund. (55.1949) The Museum ol Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.A. Photo
Credit: Digital Image ©The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
© 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
K "Different motives inevitably require different
methods of expression." -Pablo Picasso
Weeping Woman [Femme en pleursj, 1937. Oil on canvas. 60.8 x 50.0 cm., Tate Gallery,
London, Great Britain. Photo Credit: Tate, London / Art Resource, NY. © 2009 Estate of
Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
6 SCHOLASTIC ART • 2009

•4 What Cubist elements can you find in this 1969 work?
G'sa! Heads, March 16,1969. Oil on canvas, 194.5 x 129 cm., The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg,
Russia / The Bridgeman Art Library. ® 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
sso's earlier Cubist paintings. In them, flat, solid shapes
interlock like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and broad
organic curves produce a sense of movement.
In Three \iusicians, Pierrot holds a wind instrument,
while Harlequin holds a guitar and a third character, a
bearded monk, holds a piece of sheet music. The musicians'
distorted bodies give them distinct personalities.
The interaction between positive shapes and negative
space creates a sense of visual rhythm that hints at the
musical rhythm of the song the musicians are playing.
Throughout his life, which spanned nearly a century until
his death in 1973, Picasso never stopped creating art or looking
for new ways to express himself. His work also reflected
the troubled times he lived in. In 1936, a civil war broke out
in Spain between the Spanish Republican government and
forces led by General Francisco Franco. Franco's forces were
supported by the brutal German dictator Adolf Hitler and
his Nazi Party. In 1937, German planes flew over
the Spanish city of Guernica (GWAIR-ni-kuh).
For three hours they released bombs over the city,
killing between 250 and 1,600 civilians and reducing
the buildings to rubble.
That year, Picasso painted Weeping Woman
(opposite page, right), a work that reflects his
sorrow over the horrors of the Spanish Civil
War. The painting combines Cubist elements,
like multiple viewpoints with the distortions
used in Three Musicians. Angular shapes,
clashing color opposites (yellow/purple, red/
green) and repeated, slashing brushstrokes
create a sense of unrest and emotional anguish.
In 1939, General Franco's victory in Spain
gave Hitler the confidence to invade Poland,
an invasion that started World War II (1939-
1945). Picasso was living in Paris during the
Spanish Civil War, so his life had not been directly
affected by it. But in 1940, the Germans
invaded Paris and controlled it until 1944.
The Nazis made these four years very hard
for Picasso. They considered him an enemy
because he made art that denounced Hitler.
Nazi officers sometimes came to Picasso's studio
to question him. One of them searched the studio
and found a photograph of Guernica taken
after the German bombing. "Did you do this?"
he asked. "No," Picasso answered, "you did."
In 1944, when American, British, and
Russian forces liberated Paris, the sounds of their gunfights
with Nazi soldiers rang through the streets surrounding
Picasso's studio. Picasso continued to paint
during these battles, singing to himself to drown out
the noise. Through the turmoil of war and until the
end of his life, he never stopped making art.
Picasso painted Great Heads (top) when he was in
his late 80s. This work shows Cubist influence: both heads
are seen simultaneously from frontal and profile points
of view. But Picasso has applied paint by dripping or
squirting it onto the canvas, or by using his brush to lay
down paint in thick layers and loose strokes. Jagged lines
contrast with swirling lines. Shapes overlap and dissolve.
All of these techniques were invented by a new generation
of artists who had been inspired by Picasso's experiments.
Picasso, in turn, experimented with techniques invented
by these artists. The Cubist revolution had come full circle.
MARCH 2009 • SCHOLASTIC ART 7