Pablo Picassos The Weeping Woman - Essay Example

Modern artists experimented with different textures and figurative images designed to provoke artistic thought rather than idealizing age-old concepts such as feminine beauty or simplistic artistic expression. What impressed me most was how human thought was able to be expressed on canvas using styles not previously seen in most historical pieces of artwork.

            Picasso’s “The Weeping Woman” uses geometric abstraction that is superimposed over the image of a woman who is obviously in distress. This oil on canvas piece shows her anguish as though her tears are literally stripping her face of its vibrancy. This is obvious by the graying areas around her mouth while the rest of her face explodes in vivid colors. It is the use of color distinctions to show her terrible emotional state and the impact that it has on the soul. The gray tones around her mouth seem to indicate that she has cried so much that she is actually turning to ice and her mouth looks to be spitting out frost from having had her heart broken so many times.

            It was the story behind the painting that made me examine it more closely. Picasso was attempting to use his real-life mistress, Dora Maar, as a model for the picture who he thought cried far too often. He met her in a café where she was busy dropping a penknife between her fingers on the café table, missing and creating small drops of blood while she continued the activity (Button). Picasso was very abstract and it seems this woman was also, which made the story of their romance more intriguing because she was a perfect match for his creative and eccentric personality.

            This work is representative of most abstract painters but does not necessarily have the same themes and use of materials that other modern art pieces do. It is unique to a very creative mind that is able to present hidden psychological emotions on canvas in a way that was unique to his ingenuity in regards to painting and self-expression. Picasso had a strong family link to many different wartime situations, namely his foreign mother, who would often describe what she was witnessing and express her sadness. This piece acts as a testament to those horrors and his love for Dora Maar because of her unique personality and her ability to inspire a great modern artist.