Perfection of Pablo Picasso's Art Work - Research Paper Example

Pablo Picasso This research paper seeks to analyze the various themes portrayed by the renowned artist Pablo Picasso.In addition, the paper will discuss his early life, the beginning and perfection of his art work. The study will review the ideas of various authors to support and elaborate the subject of study Pablo Picasso Early life Walther notes that Picasso’s artistic skills begun even before he was born. His father (Don Jose Ruiz Blasco) was a renowned painter. His father’s paternal decent was traceable back to 1541. Pablo’s family paternal lineage showed dedication, courage, open mind and toughness in matters of arts, and honesty in matters of religion. The same qualities were inherited by Picasso. Pablo inherited the outside appearance of his mother Dona Maria Picasso Y Lopez. With Pablo and his father, there were two painters in their family (Walther 7-10). Picasso was born on 25th October 1881 at 11:15 p.m. He was born out of luck since the midwife had given up on him. The midwife tried saving the life of the mother instead. Pablo was saved from suffocation by his uncle Don Salvadors, a qualified doctor. He blew a few puff of smoke on his face and this gave life to Pablo. Picasso enjoyed narrating this legend. His biography also highlights this historical point as it shows Picasso’s initial encounter with death and the victory over it (Walther 7-10). People began admiring Pablo’s vitality at the age of nine years. This was particularly his aspect of art, which was part and parcel of him at birth. Pablo spent ten years of his early life at Malaga, the place of his birth. His father was not a wealthy man. The father worked as a keeper at the town museum. Pablo’s father also worked as an art teacher at Escuela de San Telmo. The father accepted a well paid job, which he got. Pablo’s father and his family moved to the capital of La Coruna in the province of Atlantic coast. Pablo and his father resided in this capital for the next four years (Hamilton 71-78). Pablo’s father encouraged the son’s talents later in Pablo’s life. The father was concerned with his progress in academies early in life. At school, Pablo was interested in numbers written by the teacher on the blackboard rather than the mathematical problem. Pablo used to copy shapes alone; Pablo at one point wondered how he had managed to grasp basic arithmetic. Pablo used drawings to express himself appropriately in his academic sphere (Hamilton 71-78). Pablo’s life took the artistic path after he failed to perform well in schoolwork. Pablo’s father taught his son arts until he was thirteen years. After 13 years of age, he had grasped all the ideas need in the art of painting. This marked a crucial moment in Pablo’s life history. The father handed over the painting works to Pablo and never did it again. This shows that the father had recognized his son’s perfection of his artistic skills (Walther 7-10). The beginning and perfection of Picasso Art work Pablo showed similar ability to master arts when he was passed his entrance examination at La Lonja school of Art in Barcelona. Pablo’s father was offered employment in La Lonja school of Art in Barcelona as a professor. They had moved to Barcelona in 1895. Pablo was able to join La Lonja school of Art in Barcelona by skipping the beginner’s course because of his father’s influence. Pablo was required to submit a project profile within one month before he could be accepted to proceed with his advanced stage of classical art. Pablo was talented; he submitted the project file in a day. The results of the project further showed that his performance was better than the senior students who had done final example projects (Boyd 301-303). Gertrude Stein later became his teacher at the age of 14 years. Gertrude Stein notes that Pablo was a prodigy. He had satisfied the requirements of a famous academy at the age of 14 years. Gertrude further states that no man is born a master of art, but Pablo was a born painter. Before completing his apprenticeship, Pablo joined the ranks of the renowned painters in Barcelona (Boyd 301-303). The famous art work by Pablo was his first oil painting in 1895. This painting was in conjunction with the arts of Santiago Rusinol and Isidiro Nonell in Barcelona. This exhibition was the best one ever held in Barcelona. Pablo had chosen a religious topic. His picture showed a significant incident in the life of a Christian. This painting was accepted in the academic and religious circles. The painting was used to illustrate the history of his father’s family. The picture also highlighted the aspect of realism and emotionalism. Afterwards, Pablo separated himself from such artist field (Walther 7-10). In 1897, Picasso moved to his new art studio in Malaga in Madrid during the summer holiday. Later, Picasso joined the Academy of San Fernado. This was one of the renowned art academies in Spain. At the beginning, Pablo adopted the artistic style of older painters. These styles served as themes that gave Pablo the fresh ideas for his original work. Picasso rearranged the styles repeatedly to come up with different variations (Walther 7- 10). The various themes depicted by Picasso Style of Art McAuliffe and Marsha highlight that Picasso utilized various techniques in his artistic work. This entirely depended on the phases of his art. The two author note that much of Picasso’s art in his early years was traditional. The art was executed in blue color and cool shades. These colors reflected a melancholy theme. The paintings were dark in color and showed sadness because of losing his friend. This period was what is refereed as blue period. When Picasso moved to France, he lightened the colors that he used in paintings. This was after he became interested in the acrobats and clowns of circus. The red shades and other happier themes slowly dominated his work. This was referred as the Rose period (Hamilton 71-78). With time, Picasso developed an interest in Liberian and African art. Picasso analyzed his classical ideas of arts and applied them into three dimension geometric forms. Picasso later introduced collage to his art work. Picasso realized the effect of collage obtained through the use of paint (McAuliffe and Marsha 66). In 1895, before Pablo’s father relocated to Barcelona, Pablo’s sister, Conchita, died of Diphtheria. This event disturbed young Pablo at his early years of life and even in his older ages. Pablo blamed his mother of failing to check her children often. This was to verify whether her children were in good health. Between the year 1897 and 1899, Pablo depicted the theme of death through his artist work, which was inspired by the death of her sister in early years. He painted a picture that represented a girl who had ill health. The theme “Watched Sleeper” is represented through Pablo’s drawings and painting between 1930s and 1940s. Pablo drew the “Watched Sleeper” motifs when his children were young (Hamilton 71-78). From 1901 to 1968, Pablo suffered various loses. He lost his inspiration artist Carlos Casagemas and Jaime Sabartes. In February 17, 1901, Casagemas committed suicide. He shot himself in the head. Pablo was in London at that time. Pablo did not make it to Casgemas’ burial or see his body. Pablo made a number of paintings and drawings. He drew Casgemas’ body in his coffin and more so emphasized the gunshot wounds in his head (Walther 7-10). Pablo’s painting on Casagemas’ death led to his blue period. The blue period shows mothers holding their infants to their breast tightly. Pablo also painted the La Vie, which was a version of an earlier picture showing a young man and woman standing adjacent to each other both naked. The man in the Painting La Vie showed the facial picture of Picasso. The facial expression changed to that of Casagema. This picture revealed Picasso’s close identification with his dead friend Casagema. The La Vie picture took Pablo nine months to finish. This symbolically showed a form of rebirth for Picasso. Picasso was so fearful about being lonely in the studio. This was worsened by the death of Sabartes, a close friend of him. Sabartes had come from Spain to console Pablo after Casgemas death (Hamilton 71-78). In 1904, Picasso drew a number of drawings about an unknown neighbor who had committed suicide. Picasso drew the neighbor hanging from the top of a building. However, Picasso did not show this picture to any person for 50 years. In the 1909, Picasso and Georges Braque come up with the drawing cubism. Cubism has its linkage to Picasso’s desire to overcome the fears originating from death and nature’s mysterious events particularly the Malaga earthquake of 1884. Picasso abandoned cubist work after Braque joined the army in 1914. Picasso could not work alone on cubist work. Instead, Picasso initiated portrait works, which were representation form of painting (Hamilton 71-78). Eva Gouel (Picasso’s mistress) died from tuberculosis on December 14th 1915. This resulted into Picasso drastic decrease of cubist and representation paintings. With time, Picasso was unable to continue with cubist work. Picasso decided to move from cubism and concentrate on more naturalistic artistic styles of his early periods. The death of Eva Gouel rekindled his memories of his sister death from Diphtheria. Picasso did a portrait of a friend Guillaume Apollinaire after he died in 1918 from influenza. This showed that Picasso had gone back to his old artistic styles. Picasso drew a portrait concerning the way he received the sad news. The picture captured Picasso’s facial expression when he received the sad news of Guillaume Apollinaire demise. The impression of this picture lasted for twenty years (Boyd 301-303). Picasso was not comfortable with abstraction; this was especially the pure form. Picasso’s art required the resemblance of an object with what the art represented. The Spanish war of April 1937 played a crucial role in Picasso’s artistic work. Picasso Drew one of his best known paintings from the war. The picture was a symbolic interpretation of the war, which involved various figures. The picture had various figures, which included a bull, a horse and a woman with uncovered breast holding a dead infant (Boyd 301-303). Picasso’s artistic work was inspired by fears of death. The completion of an art work provided Picasso temporary relief. Every time he would think of death, he immediately began his painting job (Hamilton 71-78). Picasso is portrayed as an innovator, boundary breaker and iconoclast. Picasso’s picture (Les Demoiselles) was shocking and still remains shocking. The picture shocked Braque and any artist who was conscious of its implications. Picasso and Braque worked hard in the famous artistic work of cubism. Boyd notes that the two began an assault on spatial representation and perspective of cubism. The two painters initiated the greatest ever known revolution in the painting industry since the period of Renaissance. Boyd notes that the theme that comes out of Picasso’s work is that he is talented in different art work, as opposed to other artist of his period (Boyd 301-303). Works Cited Boyd, William. Bamboo: Edition Reprint. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008. Print. Hamilton, James. A Psychoanalytic Approach to Visual. New York: Karnac Books, 2012. Print. McAuliffe, Michelle and Marsha, Black. Art & Artist through the Centuries. London: Teacher Created Resources, 2001. Print. Walther, Ingo. Paul Cezanne: 1839-1906: Pioneer of Modernism; Basic Art, 2ndEdition. New York: Taschen, 2000. Print. Read More