Picasso Art Article

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.