128- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Block party: Pablo Picasso
When the Picasso family moved to Barcelona in 1895
their teenage maestro paddled happily in the creative
fount of CatalanModernisme. He was already an
accomplished artist but the technically astute,
representational paintings of his formative years did little
to suggest that here was the progressive colossus of 20th
century art. However, his work evolved rapidly. By 1900,
aged 19, he was in Paris soaking up the style of Van
Gogh, Gauguin andToulouse-Lautrec, regurgitating bits
of each in his Blue Period of beggars and prostitutes
that also drew on the social sensitivities found in Isidro
Nonell’s work. Having bounced between Paris and
Barcelona for a few years, in 1904 Picasso settled more
permanently in the French capital. Still a poor, struggling
artist, he entered his Rose Period, painting unsmiling
circus folk, this time in pinkish hues. Again, his figurative
work echoed the likes of Lautrec and Gauguin.Then, in 1907, everything changed. Inspired by an
unlikely cocktail of ancient Iberian art, ‘primitive’ African
sculpture and the post-Impressionists, Picasso unveiled
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.The influences of post-
Impressionism, notably Cezanne, can be seen in the
vision of a Barcelonan brothel, but here, for the first
time, Picasso also connects to a new style, Cubism.
The painting has duly been dubbed the first great work
of modern art. Working alongside Frenchman Georges
Braque in Montmartre, Picasso rapidly developed the
Cubist style.They began with Analytical Cubism, of which
Picasso’sFemme aux poires (Fernande)(1909) is a fine,
blocky example, and soon evolved Synthetic Cubism,
introducing collage to their painting.Nature morte à la
chaise cannée(1912) examples Picasso’s use of new
materials in his work, containing as it does a scrap of old
cane chair.Picasso gets the blues
Picasso chose
melancholic blues as
the primary shades in
his line-heavy early 20th
century paintings. This
Blue Period was sparked
by grief at the death
of his friend, Carlos
Casagemas, the artist
who had first travelled
to Paris with Picasso.
Casagemas shot himself
in the temple in the
Hippodrome Café, Paris,
distraught at some
unrequited love. The
desolate characters
that haunt paintings
likeLa Vie(1903) and
La Tragédie(1903) are
typical of this period
in Picasso’s work.