Picasso Paper
Directions:
Summarize the following article on Picasso in 1 page.
Include and talk about this information in your summary (tell me what the article says)
Success Criteria:
Clear, big headlines
Summarize the following article on Picasso in 1 page.
Include and talk about this information in your summary (tell me what the article says)
- Gertrude Stein
- paste in the image from your PJ next to the writing
- Les Demoiselle d’Avignon
- paste in the image from your PJ next to the writing
- What style of painting was he most famous for?
- Explain this style
- paste in the image from your PJ next to the writing
- Explain this style
Success Criteria:
Clear, big headlines
- Neat, clean handwriting
- Full sentences and paragraphs are used.
- All information on hand out is included.
- Images are neatly cut out and glued into the process journal.
- NO tape or staples. If an image is hanging off the page it will not count
Picasso
All these artworks were painted by the 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso during a career that last more than 70 years. No artist has affected modern art more. The thousands of masterpieces he created changed the way people thought about art. Picasso was perhaps the most talented, and successful artist who ever lived.
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born in 1881 in a small town in on the southern coast of Spain. His father was a painter who taught art. Picasso showed exceptional talent at an early age and by the time he was in his teens, painted than his father or any of the local art teachers. At 16, Picasso was sent to the Royal Academy of Madrid, where student drew from plaster casts and copies work of the mod masters. Picasso felt these assignments were pointless and began to work on his own. Picasso’s father soon became angry with his son’s rebellious behavior, long hair, and strange clothes. He believed that Pablo was wasting his talent and scolded him: “Why don’t you cut your hair and paint sensibly?”
In 1900, Picasso left for Paris- then the center of the art world. He lived in a cold, rundown building painting constantly, sometimes surviving only on a piece of bread. During these years, his art reflected his dismal surroundings. Homeless outcasts were the subject of many of his fairly realistic early paintings. After seeing African masks and sculptures, his works became more simplified and angular leading up the revolutionary new style known as Cubism.
Picasso didn’t sell much of work during these early years. But he worked continuously, always experimenting with different styles of painting. Though Picasso lived to be 91 and became the most famous artist in the world, he spoke of his youthful days in Paris as, “the happiest time in my life.”
A New Way of Seeing
Gertrude Stein was an American writer who lived in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. Her apartment became a gathering place for writers, musicians, and artists- including Pablo Picasso.
In 1905, Picasso began working on a portrait of Stein. She sat for more than 80 sessions while he worked on it.
By the autumn of 1906, Picasso still wasn’t satisfied with Steins’ portrait. Recalling and exhibition of ancient Spanish sculpture he had seen earlier that year, Picasso began to pain over the face with having Gertrude Stein post for it again. He gave her face the same mysterious mask-like, sculptural qualities he felt when he saw the ancient sculptures. Stein’s face became angular and geometric, with a long, straight nose and simplified eyes and brows- suggesting perhaps a goddess or high priestess. It has been said this portrait of Gertrude Stein captures the basic strength and power of her personality and writing better than any realistic likeness ever could have.
In 1907, Picasso had begun to do a paint of a group of figures, when he made a visit to an exhibition of African art. It was the first time he had seen African masks and sculptures, and he later said the sight caused him to have a “revelation”- an astonishing discovery. He returned to his studio and worked furiously; incorporating the images he had just seen.
Compare the detail from Picasso’s painting Demoiselle d’Avignon, with the African mask. Both are simplified, stylized, flat, and geometric. In his painting, Picasso did away with modeling and natural curves- straight lines form angular, overlapping planes. Faces are seen from many points of view- eyes are scene from the front on profiles; noses are down from the side on frontal faces.
Since Picasso was able to draw and paint so realistically, why did he begin working in this strange way? At the beginning of the 20th century, new discoveries in science and technology were changing the way artist, writers and musicians saw the world. The art of other cultures-Africa, Japan- was being “discovered”. The earlier invention of photography made realistic painting nearly “obsolete” Images far more realistic than anything drawn or painting “by hand” could be created by anyone skilled enough to focus a camera and click the shutter. In the 20th century “reality” would have to be expressed in new ways.
When he created this painting, Picasso was searching for a way to represent real objects on a flat canvas. He wanted to show figures as they really exist in the surrounding space from many viewpoints that constantly change. His breaking up of natural forms into tilting, shifting planes and geometric shapes was the beginning of the new style of art called Cubism. Demoiselles D’Avignon can’t be read as a painted replica of the external world. It is one of the first modern paintings to provide a new kind of visual experience.
Cubist Painting
As you’ve seen, Picasso wanted to get as close to reality as possible. He felt the only way to represent a real object on a flat canvas was to create a painting that would show every side of the object. If he took each point of view, emphasized the main geometric shapes and spread al these points of view out on the canvas, he would have a total picture of the object he was representing. The image would unfold and the viewer would be able to know everything there was to know about the subject.
With this Cubist style, objects became so broken up they were almost unrecognizable. In his later Cubist paintings, Picasso began to combine several points of view of the object and overlap them. This technique expressed the idea of object, rather than anyone view of it. It led to development of abstract or non-representational art later in the 20th century.
Picasso was interested in all forms of art and in 1917, he began to design scenery and costumes for dance performances. Characters from the theatre were also the subjects of many of his works. The pencil drawing on the right is a realistic depiction of two comic figures that Picasso often used in many of his Cubist paintings. In this sketch, they are clowns who play musical instruments.
In two of his most famous paintings, done several years later, Picasso has transformed these two figures into Three Musicians. In both paintings the two figures at the left, play musical instruments while a hooded monk on the right sings All three figures are made up of angular, geometric shapes. The figures appear flat, with little modeling or sense of space. The artist has framed each composition with a series of brown planes, creating a shallow “room” for the musicians. The jagged contours and sudden changes of the value and hue might suggest musical sounds. The small objects and the tiny hands of the players emphasize the large scale of the composition. The dark, somber color and austere formality of the huge masked figures convey a feeling of mystery. After Three Musicians, Picasso went on to develop other styles. But these two works seem to sum up the concepts of Cubism.
All these artworks were painted by the 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso during a career that last more than 70 years. No artist has affected modern art more. The thousands of masterpieces he created changed the way people thought about art. Picasso was perhaps the most talented, and successful artist who ever lived.
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born in 1881 in a small town in on the southern coast of Spain. His father was a painter who taught art. Picasso showed exceptional talent at an early age and by the time he was in his teens, painted than his father or any of the local art teachers. At 16, Picasso was sent to the Royal Academy of Madrid, where student drew from plaster casts and copies work of the mod masters. Picasso felt these assignments were pointless and began to work on his own. Picasso’s father soon became angry with his son’s rebellious behavior, long hair, and strange clothes. He believed that Pablo was wasting his talent and scolded him: “Why don’t you cut your hair and paint sensibly?”
In 1900, Picasso left for Paris- then the center of the art world. He lived in a cold, rundown building painting constantly, sometimes surviving only on a piece of bread. During these years, his art reflected his dismal surroundings. Homeless outcasts were the subject of many of his fairly realistic early paintings. After seeing African masks and sculptures, his works became more simplified and angular leading up the revolutionary new style known as Cubism.
Picasso didn’t sell much of work during these early years. But he worked continuously, always experimenting with different styles of painting. Though Picasso lived to be 91 and became the most famous artist in the world, he spoke of his youthful days in Paris as, “the happiest time in my life.”
A New Way of Seeing
Gertrude Stein was an American writer who lived in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. Her apartment became a gathering place for writers, musicians, and artists- including Pablo Picasso.
In 1905, Picasso began working on a portrait of Stein. She sat for more than 80 sessions while he worked on it.
By the autumn of 1906, Picasso still wasn’t satisfied with Steins’ portrait. Recalling and exhibition of ancient Spanish sculpture he had seen earlier that year, Picasso began to pain over the face with having Gertrude Stein post for it again. He gave her face the same mysterious mask-like, sculptural qualities he felt when he saw the ancient sculptures. Stein’s face became angular and geometric, with a long, straight nose and simplified eyes and brows- suggesting perhaps a goddess or high priestess. It has been said this portrait of Gertrude Stein captures the basic strength and power of her personality and writing better than any realistic likeness ever could have.
In 1907, Picasso had begun to do a paint of a group of figures, when he made a visit to an exhibition of African art. It was the first time he had seen African masks and sculptures, and he later said the sight caused him to have a “revelation”- an astonishing discovery. He returned to his studio and worked furiously; incorporating the images he had just seen.
Compare the detail from Picasso’s painting Demoiselle d’Avignon, with the African mask. Both are simplified, stylized, flat, and geometric. In his painting, Picasso did away with modeling and natural curves- straight lines form angular, overlapping planes. Faces are seen from many points of view- eyes are scene from the front on profiles; noses are down from the side on frontal faces.
Since Picasso was able to draw and paint so realistically, why did he begin working in this strange way? At the beginning of the 20th century, new discoveries in science and technology were changing the way artist, writers and musicians saw the world. The art of other cultures-Africa, Japan- was being “discovered”. The earlier invention of photography made realistic painting nearly “obsolete” Images far more realistic than anything drawn or painting “by hand” could be created by anyone skilled enough to focus a camera and click the shutter. In the 20th century “reality” would have to be expressed in new ways.
When he created this painting, Picasso was searching for a way to represent real objects on a flat canvas. He wanted to show figures as they really exist in the surrounding space from many viewpoints that constantly change. His breaking up of natural forms into tilting, shifting planes and geometric shapes was the beginning of the new style of art called Cubism. Demoiselles D’Avignon can’t be read as a painted replica of the external world. It is one of the first modern paintings to provide a new kind of visual experience.
Cubist Painting
As you’ve seen, Picasso wanted to get as close to reality as possible. He felt the only way to represent a real object on a flat canvas was to create a painting that would show every side of the object. If he took each point of view, emphasized the main geometric shapes and spread al these points of view out on the canvas, he would have a total picture of the object he was representing. The image would unfold and the viewer would be able to know everything there was to know about the subject.
With this Cubist style, objects became so broken up they were almost unrecognizable. In his later Cubist paintings, Picasso began to combine several points of view of the object and overlap them. This technique expressed the idea of object, rather than anyone view of it. It led to development of abstract or non-representational art later in the 20th century.
Picasso was interested in all forms of art and in 1917, he began to design scenery and costumes for dance performances. Characters from the theatre were also the subjects of many of his works. The pencil drawing on the right is a realistic depiction of two comic figures that Picasso often used in many of his Cubist paintings. In this sketch, they are clowns who play musical instruments.
In two of his most famous paintings, done several years later, Picasso has transformed these two figures into Three Musicians. In both paintings the two figures at the left, play musical instruments while a hooded monk on the right sings All three figures are made up of angular, geometric shapes. The figures appear flat, with little modeling or sense of space. The artist has framed each composition with a series of brown planes, creating a shallow “room” for the musicians. The jagged contours and sudden changes of the value and hue might suggest musical sounds. The small objects and the tiny hands of the players emphasize the large scale of the composition. The dark, somber color and austere formality of the huge masked figures convey a feeling of mystery. After Three Musicians, Picasso went on to develop other styles. But these two works seem to sum up the concepts of Cubism.