Pablo Picasso as One of the Most Important Figures in Cubism - Essay Example

Picasso and Cubism By 1906 there was a turning point in the artistic work mostly led by the career artist Pablo Picasso. The painter had a large following where many people were buying his paintings. In 1907, Picasso painted the Les demoiselles d’Avingnon. In this figure as Picasso and McNeese (46) argue, the painting involved the use of several view paintings in creating human figures. This was later to become the characteristic feature of cubism. The main aim of Picasso was to depict an item as it is seen through several viewpoints independently. This made Picasso and Braque to become friends and later they developed the aspects of cubism together. Largely Picasso’s epoque negre, was largely inspired by the African art and this overlapped the first phase in cubism that is known as analytical cubism (Picasso and McNeese, 46). It was through the Picasso’s artwork and styles that marked the beginning of abstract art. This made Picasso to reach a place of abstraction in painting that was radical break from the classical dominance of content over form. Therefore the most important aspect of cubism by place is the neglect of form in favor of content. Below is an analysis of one of Picasso’s paintings and comparison with other styles of artistic work during this period for understanding of the actual artistic work. Above is one of the most remarkable paintings of Picasso known as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907. The painting represents a good sample of cubism that uses geometrical work to represent images that the painter wishes to express. The painting signaled a different direction and the painting clearly reflected the aspects of cubism of presenting contents in dimensional views as compared to form as had been the order of artistic work before. According to the Victoria School Art and Visual and Cultural Studies, VSAVCS (2009) the early cubism started from 1907 to 1909. The aim of this artistic work was to flatten out the picture plane and was largely influenced by primitive artistic work. This artistic style was characterized by extremely bright colors, hard edged forms and flattened spaces (VSAVCS, 2009). Moreover though there are other artistic forms such as post impressionalism and impressionalism presenting flat forms, the works of Picasso and Braque were unique and more radical in this approach. Largely cubism was based on intellectual experiment and structure as compared to the expression of emotions. This made it more practical to use geometrical shapes in this artistic work a high contrast to other artistic work in this period. In addition VSAVCS (2009) further elaborates that the later period of synthetic cubism lasted between 1912 and1914 and this represented colligated objects into their paintings. This represented the synthetic cubism that as described above portrayed colligated objects into their paintings. Picasso guitar sheet music glass of 1912 Incidentally, according to the 20th Century Art (n,d) the work of Picasso as portrayed above was not restricted to one of the artistic period. For example the above painting has aspects of both Renaissance and baroque properties, and yet does not fit to any of these artistic periods. Corot, Chemin de Sevres, 19th century is a good example of Renaissance artistic work. Bailey (4) argues that most of the artistic work that artists have been painting for several centuries either belonged to the renaissance or the Baroque period artistic work. Renaissance work was more elaborate in using light and depth and a well fitting frame that portrayed the aspect of form, where all the elements in the painting fit. Comparing the painting by Picasso with this typical Renaissance painting, the painting has light shades and fits to the frame correctly as required by the Renaissance artistic work. However, the painting has no depth and uses some forms of geometric shape that are not common with Renaissance artistic work. On the other hand, the baroque period was characterized by the use of flowing forms that use dark shapes and that are not plastic. The baroque artistic work also as Bailey (4) argues has elaborate dark shades and escapes from clarity. These features are not evident with the above painting by Picasso, and thus the painting cannot be grouped in this artistic era. Reubens’ Massacre of the Innocents- a baroque artistic work; 17th century Expressionism according to VSAVCS (2009) was characterized by lack of accurate production of a subject and involved expression of the inner state of the artist. These were more influenced by Fauvism, cubism and symbolism. This artistic work was required to revive the graphic arts that has simplified and bold forms. Below is a painting by Munch, 1893; that represents expressionism and the use of colors, with no accurate forms and shapes. The above painting by Picasso largely does not fit to any of the known artistic work and remains to be unique in style and presentation. The 20th century artistic work argues that, the cubism approach by Picasso contained conventional figural and spatial values, stylized paintings, monumental and proportional figures that are random and that give the impression of the classical artistic work. The cubist work period involved Picasso presenting paintings in form of linear fracturing of the image that used clearer and more concentrated spatial zones with linear structures as observed in the painting above. This means that cubism could not be married into any other artistic style and remained unique all the way as a different artistic work from the rest. Picasso and McNeese (47) further argue that Picasso helped to create a new form of artistic work that would later be known as cubism. Cubism therefore presented a unique way in to present artistic work in a more realistic approach away from the plane styles presented by the artistic works explained above. Cubism was a unique way of artistic work that presented reality more clearly compared to other artistic work before. Instead of using linear perspectives, Cubism made it possible to portray the artistic work from multiple views simultaneously on two surface planes (Picasso and McNeese, 47). There’re cubism in an attempt to present artistic work in several dimensional views and combining them. The result is that the single view presented is distorted and unrealistic image is portrayed. This explains the observed geometrical patterns in the painting above by Picasso in a new artist style known as cubism. Largely the above painting by Picasso known as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907as shown above was chosen due to its typical resemblance and yet different from artistic works in several artistic periods. The painting largely portrays the aspect of combining several dimensions into one and this makes the image to appear unrealistic, unreal and portrays the geometric shapes that result from the attempt to present several dimensions on a two plane surface. The painting by Picasso was therefore chosen because it represents the typical aspects that characterize Cubism artistic work by Picasso. The painting portrays clearly the main features that are evident in most of Picasso’s work and the feeling of avoiding form and plasticity in favor of content. Work cited Art of the 20th century. Revolution in the arts: art styles in 20th century: Pablo Picasso- Image of the artist 1881-1973. http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/picasso1.html 29 Nov. 2011 Bailey A. Gauvin. Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit art Rome, 1565-1610. London: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2003. Picasso, Pablo and McNeese, Tim. Pablo Picasso. NY: Infobase publishing , 2006 Victoria school art of elective program and visual cultural studies (Website art). Artistic periods http://home.vs.moe.edu.sg/whitenoise/Renaissance.html 29 Nov. 2011 Read More