Leo Martínez
Pablo Picasso is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, with a body of work that includes over 20,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and ceramics. Across these works, Picasso explored a variety of themes and styles, including Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. His paintings, in particular, are known for their use of colour as an expressive element and their synthesis of colour and texture through the use of mixed media. So, what do all of Picasso's paintings have in common?
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Artistic styles | Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Realism, Abstraction |
| Media | Paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theatre sets, costumes |
| Themes | Political, social, amorous, poverty, loneliness, despair, circus performers, clowns, personal life, war |
| Techniques | Use of dots, silhouettes, grains of sand, collage, mixed media, texture, colour, drawing, modelling, construction |
| Influences | Paul Cézanne, Henri Rousseau, tribal art, African art, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Henri Matisse, Surrealists, Joan Miro, Salvador Dalí |
| Notable works | Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Guernica, Vollard Suite, The Red Armchair, Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle, Still Life with a Bottle of Rum, Science and Charity |
| Artistic philosophy | "Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." |
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What You'll Learn
Varied influences
Pablo Picasso's work is known for its varied influences, which he drew from both his personal life and the world around him.
One of the most notable influences on Picasso's work was his personal life, including his relationships with women. He is known to have kept many mistresses and had two wives. His tumultuous personal life, including his extramarital affairs, was often reflected in his art. For example, his relationship with the dancer Olga Koklova was failing around 1929, and it is thought that a painting completed that year represents her. Similarly, Picasso frequently painted the women he was in love with, such as his mistresses Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, and Françoise Gilot.
Another influence on Picasso's work was his political views. He was a member of the Communist Party and saw himself as a communist artist. His 1937 painting Guernica, for example, was a response to the bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, embodying the inhumanity, brutality, and hopelessness of war.
Picasso was also influenced by the artists and art movements that came before him. He was a great student of art, borrowing forms and ideas from works of various cultures and periods. He was particularly influenced by the French artist Henri Matisse, whose work motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, sparking a fruitful rivalry between the two artists. Other influences include Paul Cézanne, Henri Rousseau, Francisco Goya, El Greco, and archaic and tribal art, including African art.
In addition to these influences, Picasso's work was also shaped by his formal training in art. He received his earliest training from his father, José Ruiz y Blasco, a professor of art and painting, before attending the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, where he studied Spanish painting by artists such as Goya and El Greco. However, Picasso disliked the formal instruction he received and instead spent his days recording life in Madrid, including in the cafés, on the streets, and in the brothels.
Finally, Picasso's work was influenced by his surroundings and the people he met. For example, after moving to Paris in 1904, he lived among bohemian poets and writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, and he found dedicated patrons in American siblings Gertrude and Leo Stein. Their Saturday-evening salons in their home were an incubator for modern artistic and intellectual thought, where Picasso met other artists living and working in the city.
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Political statements
Pablo Picasso is renowned for his diverse and innovative styles, and his work is often associated with the development of modern art. However, his contributions to political art have been re-examined, specifically their significance in shaping public opinion and raising awareness about pressing issues of his time.
One of Picasso's most famous works, Guernica, is a powerful anti-war statement. Created in 1937, it depicts the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting has become a universal symbol of the horrors of war, transcending its original context to become a powerful tool for anti-war movements and peace activists worldwide. It is also considered a symbol of resistance and a site of protest. The monochromatic palette and cubist style of Guernica emphasise the horror and dehumanisation of war, and it is said that the work was influenced by his relationship with the French anti-fascist activist and photographer, Dora Maar, whose work often featured a black-and-white scheme.
Months before the bombing of Guernica, Picasso created his first overtly political work, The Dream and Lie of Franco, a collection of two sets of prints totalling 18 separate illustrations, paired with a related prose poem. As fascism gained popularity in Europe, Picasso became increasingly engaged in anti-fascist activism, joining the French Communist Party in 1944. He saw his activism as "the logical consequence of my whole life, of my whole work".
Another one of Picasso's paintings, The Charnel House, created between 1944 and 1945, is often seen as a companion piece to Guernica. It depicts the aftermath of a fascist massacre, with dismembered bodies piled together in a gruesome scene, providing a visual commentary on the atrocities committed by fascist regimes.
In 1945, Picasso told American GI Jerome Seckler:
> I have not painted the war because I am not the kind of painter who goes out like a photographer for something to depict.
Here, Picasso distinguishes between recording an event, as a documentary photographer would, and commenting on an event as an artist.
Picasso also created a series of artworks featuring the dove, an internationally recognised symbol of peace. The very first one was chosen as the emblem for the First International Peace Conference in Paris.
Picasso's politically charged works serve as a testament to the power of art as a medium for conveying political messages and inciting change. They raised awareness about the horrors of war and the dangers of fascism, stirred emotions, and galvanised action. In an era before social media and instant global communication, Picasso's art played a crucial role in shaping public opinion and mobilising support for political causes.
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Personal life
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, in 1881. He was the first child of José Ruiz y Blasco, a painter and art professor, and María Picasso y López. He demonstrated artistic talent from a young age, painting in a naturalistic manner throughout his childhood and adolescence. In 1895, Picasso's seven-year-old sister, Conchita, died of diphtheria, after which his family moved to Barcelona. At just 13, Picasso was admitted to the advanced class at Barcelona's School of Fine Arts. He later studied at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, but disliked the formal instructions and decided to stop attending classes, choosing instead to spend his days in the city's Prado museum.
Picasso's adult relationships were complicated. He had two wives, many mistresses, four children, and eight grandchildren. He married his first wife, the dancer Olga Khokhlova, in 1918, and they had a son, Paulo, in 1921. However, Picasso was unfaithful, and the couple separated in 1935, though they never divorced due to legal issues. During his marriage to Olga, Picasso began a relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter, with whom he had a daughter, Maya, in 1935. This relationship was kept secret, and the power imbalance between them is thought to have had a detrimental effect on Marie-Thérèse's emotional well-being.
Following his separation from Olga, Picasso had relationships with several other women, including the photographer Dora Maar, and the painter Françoise Gilot, with whom he had two children, Claude and Paloma. He married his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, in 1961, the same year that his first wife died.
Throughout his long life, Picasso's work was influenced by his personal experiences, including his romantic relationships. His work became more expressive, often violent or erotic, and critics have noted how changes in his style often coincided with changes in his personal life. For example, his partnership with Olga is associated with his interest in dance, while his time with Jacqueline is linked to his preoccupation with his legacy alongside the Old Masters.
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Artistic techniques
Pablo Picasso is regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He explored a variety of artistic styles and techniques throughout his career, constantly experimenting and evolving. Here are some of the key artistic techniques that characterise Picasso's body of work:
Blue Period
During the early 1900s, Picasso's work was characterised by a sombre palette of blues and blue-greens, with occasional warmer hues. This period reflects the artist's personal experiences with poverty and the social issues around him. His paintings from this time depict themes of malnutrition, prostitution, and loneliness.
Rose Period
In contrast to the Blue Period, Picasso's Rose Period celebrated the lives of carnival performers, harlequins, and clowns. He abandoned the sombre blues and embraced vivid colours, such as reds and pinks. This shift in palette reflects a more cheerful period in the artist's life.
African Influence
Picasso was influenced by African and Oceanic art, which inspired him to lend his figures more structure. This influence can be seen in his masterpiece "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", which is considered one of the first Cubist works. The angular planes and well-defined contours of the figures create an overall sculptural solidity.
Analytic Cubism
During his Analytic Cubist phase, Picasso focused on the forms and volumes of objects, often suppressing colour. This can be seen in his painting "Still Life with a Bottle of Rum", where he fragmented three-dimensional forms on a two-dimensional picture plane.
Synthetic Cubism
In his Synthetic Cubist works, Picasso "synthesised" colour and texture by using various means, such as painted dots, silhouettes, and grains of sand, to allude to the depicted objects. This combination of painting and mixed media created a dynamic and expressive style.
Sculpture and Construction
Picasso was also a sculptor, and he is credited with inventing constructed sculpture. He collaborated with sculptor Julio González to create welded metal sculptures that were highly influential. He also explored the use of diverse materials, such as sheet metal and wire, to create three-dimensional constructions.
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Sculptures and collages
Pablo Picasso is credited with pioneering Cubism and co-inventing collage, alongside Georges Braque. He is also credited with inventing constructed sculpture. His sculptures and collages are considered to be greatly influential.
Picasso's early sculptures were carved from wood or modelled in wax or clay. However, from 1909 to 1928, he abandoned modelling and instead made sculptural constructions using diverse materials. An example of this is 'Guitar' (1912), a relief construction made of sheet metal and wire. This marked a "revolutionary departure" from the traditional approaches of modelling and carving.
In his sculptures, Picasso translated the Cubist interest in multiple perspectives and geometric forms into a three-dimensional medium. 'Maquette for Guitar' is an example of an assemblage or three-dimensional collage. Picasso folded, threaded, and glued pieces of cardboard, paper, string, and wire together, making it the first sculpture assembled from disparate parts.
In his collages, Picasso abandoned the idea of a picture as a window to the world, instead conceiving of it as an arrangement of signs that used different, sometimes metaphorical means, to refer to those objects. This technique emphasised the differences in texture and posed the question of what is reality and what is illusion in painting.
During his Synthetic Cubist phase, Picasso used painted dots, silhouettes, grains of sand, and non-painted objects such as newspapers or tobacco wrappers, to allude to the depicted objects. This combination of painting and mixed media is an example of how Picasso "synthesized" colour and texture.
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Frequently asked questions
All of Picasso's paintings were created by the artist himself, Pablo Picasso.
Many of Picasso's paintings were influenced by his personal life, including his relationships with women and political views. Common themes include desolation, darkness, poverty, loneliness, and despair.
Picasso's paintings span a variety of artistic movements, including Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. He is also credited with pioneering collage art and constructed sculpture.
Picasso's paintings often feature a unique geometry, off-kilter arrangements, and a combination of painting and mixed media. He also frequently used sand in his paint to vary its texture.
