Pablo Picasso: works, features of style. Cubism Pablo Picasso

It is unlikely that there will be a man on the planet who is not familiar with the name Pablo Picasso. The founder of cubism and the artist of many styles influenced in the 20th century the visual arts of not only Europe, but the whole world.

Artist Pablo Picasso: childhood and years of study

One of the brightest artists of the 20th century was born in Malaga, in a house on Plaza Merced, in 1881, on October 25. Now there is a museum and fund named after P. Picasso. Following the Spanish tradition of baptism, the parents gave the boy a rather long name, which is an alternation of the names of saints and the closest and most respected relatives in the family. Ultimately, he is known by the very first and last. Surname Pablo decided to take the mother, considering his father's too simple. The boy's talent and craving for drawing appeared from early childhood. The first and very valuable lessons he taught his father, who was also an artist. His name was Jose Ruiz. He painted his first serious picture at the age of eight - Picador. We can safely say that it was with her that the work of Pablo Picasso began. The father of the future artist received a job offer from a teacher in La Coruña in 1891, and soon the family moved to northern Spain. There, Pablo studied at the local art school for a year. Then the family moved to one of the most beautiful cities - Barcelona. Young Picasso at that time was 14 years old, and he was too young to study at La Longhu (School of Fine Arts). However, his father was able to ensure that he was admitted to the entrance exams on a competitive basis, with which he coped brilliantly. Four years later, his parents decided to put him in the best at that time advanced art school - “San Fernando” in Madrid. Studying at the Academy quickly got bored with young talent, in its classical canons and rules he was cramped and even bored. Therefore, he devoted more time to the Prado Museum and the study of its collections, and a year later he returned to Barcelona. The early period of his work includes paintings written in 1986: “Self-portrait” by Picasso, “First Communion” (it depicts the artist’s sister Lola), “Portrait of a Mother” (pictured below).

During his stay in Madrid, he first traveled to Paris, where he studied all the museums and paintings of the greatest masters. Subsequently, he will come to this center of world art more than once, and in 1904 he will move over completely.

Blue period

This time period can be considered as a litmus test, it was at this time that his personality, still subject to extraneous influence, began to appear in the work of Picasso. Known fact: the talent of creative natures manifests itself most vividly in difficult life situations. This is exactly what happened with Pablo Picasso, whose works are now known to the whole world. The takeoff was triggered and occurred after a prolonged depression caused by the death of a close friend of Carlos Casagemas. In 1901, at the exhibition organized by Vollard, 64 works of the artist were presented, but at that time they were still full of sensuality and brightness, the influence of the impressionists was clearly felt. The “blue” period of his work entered its legal rights gradually, manifesting itself in rigid contours of figures and the loss of three-dimensionality of the image, moving away from the classical laws of an artistic perspective. The palette of colors on his canvases is becoming more uniform, the emphasis is on blue. The beginning of the period can be considered "Portrait of Jaime Sabartes" and a self-portrait of Picasso, painted in 1901.

Pictures of the "blue" period

The key words in this period for the master were such words as loneliness, fear, guilt, pain. In 1902, he will return to Barcelona again, but he will not be able to stay in it. The tense situation in the capital of Catalonia, poverty on all sides and social injustice spill over into unrest, which gradually engulfed not only all of Spain, but also Europe. Probably, this state of affairs had an impact on the artist, who works fruitfully and extremely hard this year. Masterpieces of the “blue” period are created in the Homeland: “Two Sisters (Date)”, “Old Jew with a Boy”, “Tragedy” (photo of the canvas above), “Life”, where once again the image of the deceased Casagemas appears. In 1901, the painting "Absinthe Lover" was also painted. It traces the influence of the popular at that time passion for "vicious" characters, characteristic of French art. The theme of absinthe sounds in many paintings. Picasso's work, among other things, is full of drama. The hypertrophied hand of a woman, whom she seems to be trying to defend, is especially evident in the eyes. Currently, "Absinthe Lover" is kept in the Hermitage, having got there from a private and very impressive collection of Picasso's works (51 works) by S. I. Schukin after the revolution.

As soon as the opportunity arises to go to Paris again , the artist without hesitation decides to use it and leaves Spain in the spring of 1904. It is there that he will encounter new interests, feelings and impressions, which will give rise to a new stage in his work.

"Pink" period

In the work of Picasso, this stage lasted a relatively long time - from 1904 (autumn) until the end of 1906 - and was not entirely homogeneous. Most of the paintings of the period are marked by a light gamut of colors, the appearance of ocher, pearl gray, red-pink tones. Characteristic is the appearance and subsequent dominance of topics new to the artist's work - actors, circus performers and acrobats, athletes. Of course, the vast majority of the material was provided to him by the circus of Medrano, which in those years was located at the foot of Montmartre. Bright theatrical atmosphere, costumes, behavior, a variety of types seemed to return P. Picasso to the world, albeit transformed, but real forms and volumes, natural space. The images in his paintings again became sensual and filled with life, brightness, as opposed to the characters of the “blue” stage of creativity.

Pablo Picasso: works of the "pink" period

The paintings marking the beginning of a new period were first exhibited at the end of winter 1905 in the Seryurye Gallery - these are “Sitting Nude” and “Actor”. One of the recognized masterpieces of the “pink” period is the “Family of Comedians” (pictured above). The canvas has impressive dimensions - in height and width of more than two meters. The figures of circus performers are depicted against the blue sky, it is believed that the harlequin on the right side is Picasso himself. All characters are in statics, and between them there is no internal closeness, each was constrained by inner loneliness - the theme of the entire “pink” period. In addition, the following works by Pablo Picasso are worth noting: “A Woman in a Shirt”, “Toilet”, “Boy Driving a Horse”, “Acrobats. Mother and son ”,“ Girl with a goat. ” All of them demonstrate to the viewer the beauty and serenity rare for the artist’s paintings. A new push in creativity happened at the end of 1906, when Picasso traveled to Spain and ended up in a small village in the Pyrenees.

African period of creativity

P. Picasso first encountered archaic African art at the thematic exhibition of the Trocadero Museum. He was impressed by pagan idols of a primitive form, exotic masks and figurines, embodying the great power of nature and distanced from the smallest details. The ideology of the artist coincided with this powerful message, and as a result, he began to simplify his heroes, making them similar to stone idols, monumental and sharp. However, the first work in the direction of this style appeared back in 1906 - a portrait of the work of Pablo Picasso writer Gertrude Stein. He rewrote the picture 80 times and was completely disbelieved in the possibility of translating her image in the classical style. This moment can rightfully be called a transition from following nature to deformation of the form. Just look at such canvases as “Naked Woman”, “Dance with Bedspreads”, “Dryad”, “Friendship”, “Bust of a Sailor”, “Self-portrait”.

But perhaps the most striking example of the African stage of Picasso’s work is the painting “Avignon Girls” (pictured above), on which the master worked for about a year. She crowned this stage of the artist's creative path and in many respects determined the fate of art as a whole. For the first time, the canvas was released only thirty years after its writing and became an open door to the world of the avant-garde. The bohemian circle of Paris literally split into two camps: the pros and cons. Currently, the picture is stored in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Cubism in the works of Picasso

The problem of uniqueness and accuracy of the image remained in first place in European art until the moment when cubism burst into it. Many consider the incentive for its development to be the question that arose among artists: “Why draw?” At the beginning of the 20th century, practically anyone could be taught a reliable image of what you see, and literally a heel stepped on a photograph that threatened to completely supplant everything rest. Visual images become not only believable, but also affordable, easily replicated. Cubism Pablo Picasso in this case reflects the individuality of the creator, refusing a believable image of the outside world and opening up completely new possibilities, boundaries of perception.

Early works include: “A pot, a glass and a book”, “Bathing”, “A bouquet of flowers in a gray jug”, “Bread and a vase of fruit on the table”, etc. The canvases clearly show how the artist’s style is changing and acquiring increasingly abstract features towards the end of the period (1918-1919). For example, Harlequin, Three Musicians, Still Life with a Guitar (pictured above). Picasso was completely unsatisfied with the audience’s association of the master’s work with abstractionism, the emotional message of the paintings and their hidden meaning were important to him. In the end, the cubism created by himself was ceased to inspire the artist and interest, opening the way to new trends in creativity.

Classic period

The second decade of the 20th century was quite complicated for Picasso. So, 1911 was marked by a story with stolen statuettes from the Louvre, which exhibited the artist in a bad light. In 1914, it turned out that even after living in the country for so many years, Picasso was not ready to fight for France in World War I, which divorced him with many friends. And the following year, his beloved Marcel Umber died.

The return of more realistic in the work of Pablo Picasso, whose works were filled again with readability, figure and artistic logic, was influenced by many external factors. Including a trip to Rome, where he was imbued with antique art, as well as communication with the Diaghilev ballet troupe and acquaintance with the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who soon became the artist's second wife. The beginning of a new period can be considered her portrait of 1917, which in some ways was experimental in nature. The Russian ballet Pablo Picasso not only inspired the creation of new masterpieces, but also gave his beloved and long-awaited son. The most famous works of the period: “Olga Khokhlova” (pictured above), “Pierrot”, “Still Life with a Jug and Apples”, “Sleeping Peasants”, “Mother and Child”, “Women Running on the Beach”, “Three Graces” .

Surrealism

The division of creativity is nothing but the desire to sort through and cram it into certain (stylistic, temporal) frameworks. However, the creativity of Pablo Picasso, whose famous paintings adorn the best museums and galleries in the world, this approach can be called very conditional. If you follow the chronology, the period when the artist was close to surrealism falls on the years 1925-1932. It is not surprising that at every stage of the master’s work the muse was visited by the muse, and when O. Khokhlova wished to recognize herself on his canvases, he turned to neoclassicism. However, creative people are fickle, and soon the young and very beautiful Maria Teresa Walter entered the life of Picasso, who at the time of her acquaintance was only 17 years old. She was assigned the role of a lover, and in 1930 the artist bought a castle in Normandy, which became her home, and for him - a workshop. Maria Teresa was a faithful companion, steadily transferring creative and love throwing of the creator, maintaining friendly correspondence until the death of Pablo Picasso. The works of the period of surrealism: “Dance”, “Woman in an Armchair” (pictured below), “Bather”, “Nude on the Beach”, “Sleep”, etc.

World War II period

The sympathy of Picasso during the hostilities in Spain in 1937 belonged to the Republicans. When the same year, Italian and German aviation destroyed Guernica - the political and cultural center of the Basques - Pablo Picasso depicted the city in ruins on a huge canvas of the same name in just two months. He was literally seized by the horror of the threat that hung over the whole of Europe, which could not but affect his work. Emotions were not expressed directly, but embodied in tonality, its gloom, bitterness and sarcasm.

After the war waned and the world came into relative balance, restoring everything that had been destroyed, Picasso's work also found more happy and vibrant colors. His paintings, written in 1945-1955, have a Mediterranean touch, are very atmospheric and partly idealistic. At the same time, he begins to work with ceramics, creating many decorative jugs, dishes, plates, figurines (photo presented above). The works that were created in the last 15 years of life are very uneven in style and quality.

One of the greatest artists of the twentieth century - Pablo Picasso - died at the age of 91 in his villa in France. He was buried near his castle Wovenart.