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Pablo Picasso: Artists
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The Spanish painter, sculptor, and graphic artist Pablo Picasso was one of the most productive and revolutionary artists in the history of Western painting. As the central figure in developing cubism (an artistic style where recognizable objects are fragmented to show all sides of an object at the same time), he established the basis for abstract art (art having little or no pictorial representation).
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In 1912 Picasso instigated another important innovation: construction, or assemblage, in sculpture. Before this innovation, sculpture, at least in the West, was primarily created in one of two ways: by carving a block of stone or wood or by modeling—shaping a form in clay and casting that form in a more durable material, such as bronze. In Guitar (1912, Museum of Modern Art), Picasso used a new additive process. He cut various shapes out of sheet metal and wire, and then reassembled those materials into a cubist construction. In other constructions, Picasso used wood, cardboard, string, and other everyday objects, not only inventing a new technique for sculpture but ... expanding the definition of art by blurring the distinction between artistic and nonartistic materials.
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In 1904 Picasso finally settled in Paris, at 13 Rue Ravignan, called “Bateau-Lavoir”. He met Fernande Olivier, a model, who would be his mistress for the next seven years. He even proposed to her, but she had to refuse because she was already married. They paid frequent visits to the Circus Médrano, whose bright pink tent at the foot of the Montmartre shone for miles and was quite close to his studio. There, Picasso got ideas for his pictures of circus actors. The pub Le Lapin Agile (The Agile Rabbit) was a meeting place of young artists and authors.
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In 1900 Picasso got his first studio in Montmarte, Paris, together with his friend and artist Carlos Casagemas, whom he had met in Barcelona. What an impact the French metropole had on the impressionable young Picasso is clearly seen in paintings produced in his first two years in Paris. In 1900 Picasso would apply a technique of oil painting that is somewhat blurred and reminds of soft pastels. His fascination with the world of entertainment, and the Paris night life in particular, is obvious in "Dancer in Blue". The blurred technique of painting contributes to the illusion of movement, in this painting.
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Picasso joined the communist party in 1944 and became active in the Peace Movement. His famous "Dove" was adopted by many peace organizations as the symbol of peace. In addition, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize and he always took humanistic positions on conflict issues. After W.W.II Francoise had two children with Picasso. One named Claude and the other named Paloma (which means Dove in Spanish), which once again shows Picasso’s involvement with peace and his importance to the world, not as a unique artist, but as a humanistic activist.
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A significant influence on Picasso's blue period paintings was his visit to a woman's prison called St. Lazare in Paris, were nuns served as guards. The Two sisters in the painting on the right that bears the same name, were in fact a prisoner and a nun and the painting is an example of how Picasso used to mix daily reality with Christian iconography. The posture and gestures of the women were derived from the way artists depict the visitation, the color blue symbolizing Mary, the Mother of God. The meeting, or visitation, refers to the meeting between Mary, Mother of God and the mother of John the Baptist.
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