Pablo Picasso: A Great Painter and Artist
Pablo Picasso was a well-known 20th-century painter, musician, and artist. Pablo was born in Malaga, Spain, in 1881, and he passed away on April 8, 1973.
Early Interest in Painting
Pablo's interest for painting began when he was a little child. Banished to the calaboose, which had walls that were all white, he painted a lot there after being forced to neglect his studies (Kuspit 12). He applied to a prestigious fine arts school in Barcelona at the age of 14.
The Blue Period
Pablo was greatly influenced by anarchists and radicals in Barcelona in 1899, which marked the beginning of a lifelong process of experimentation and creativity for his work and a clear departure from Classical paintings. In Pablo’s career of paintings, there were periods, where at the turn of the 20th century. Between 1901 and 1904, called, ‘The Blue Period’, which majorly was because of the color that was majorly use by Pablo in his work of art (Clark 22). The color was symbolic to the state he was in the grief following the demise of his friend Carlos Casagemas, the paintings also portrayed scenes of poverty, anguish, and isolation. His major pieces in the era were; “la Vie”, “The Old Guitarist” and “Blue Nude” (Kuspit 10).
The Rose Period
In the Rose period, the painting of Pablo took a different turn in the application of the pink, beige, and red colors that he commonly used in the period. In addition, the change brought by the fact that he was madly in love with a model Fernande Oliver as well as the generous patronage of a dealer in art Amboise Vollard.
The Break into Cubism Period
Pablo’s painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon revolutionized the painting industry in the 20th century. This picture depicted five prostitutes with distorted sharp geometric features and blotches of green, grey, and blue. In cubism, it entailed breaking of paintings and objects then reassembled in a form that is abstracted, whose end goal is to produce an artwork that will show simultaneous, multiple viewpoints.
The Classical Period
The painting, “Still Life with mandolin and guitar”, fell in the Classical Period that runs from 1918 to 1928. In this period, the outbreak of World War 1 brought in change that was immense in the work of Pablo as he obtained sobriety once more and focused on the depiction of reality in his paintings (Kuspit 15). This was a slight turn towards realism in a world dominated by experimentation in the world of art. The most important and interesting work of art in this period was; The Woman at the Spring in 1921, the two Women running On the Beach also known as The race in 1922 and the Pipes of Pan a painting done in 1923.
The Mandolin and Guitar
Picasso painted the Mandolin and Guitar while he stayed at La Vigie at Juanles-Pins along the French Riviera. This painting was 180.9 by 220.8 cm and this canvas was one of the largest he did. In the painting though a depiction of many things, the key inspirations were from Marie Therese Walter and his poet friend Guillaume Appollinaire (Clark 20). Picasso always preferred company of poets to other artistic painters hence the inspiration from his close friend who volunteered in the world war and later passed on due to a head. In the painting, Picasso held true the Appollinaire’s intention of Surrealism proving that he was alive to the detractors of the same. The painting also mocks Matisse’s elementary attempts at cubism (Picasso’s Last Laugh, n.p)/. Other than painting, Picasso worked as a poet and a renowned playwright across France.
Conclusion
Therefore, the Mandolin and Guitar portrays the cunning ability that the artist used to put in one painting aspect of time multiple subjects and dimensions concealed in the strokes of the brush of Pablo Picasso.
Work Cited
Clark, Timothy J. Picasso and truth: from cubism to guernica. Vol. 58. Princeton University Press, 2013.
Kuspit, D., 1993. Signs of psyche in modern and Postmodern Art. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press.
Picasso’s Last Laugh- The mystery Behind Mandolin and Guitar. Retrieved from [18 April 2017] http:// www. artlyst.com
