Pablo Picasso: Master of Art
“A picture has a life of its own like a living creature, and it undergoes the same changes we all undergo in daily life�
Presented by Masterworks Fine Art
Masterworks Fine Art is pleased to present this educational exhibition on the career of Pablo Picasso. As an acquirer and seller of his works, we are very familiar with his wide oeuvre and display several works from our own inventory as examples of his outstanding artistic creativity. Some are currently available to purchase and we exhibit additional pieces at the end in the hopes that you will further explore his oeuvre and be inspired to possess a work by the greatest 20th century artist.
Picasso Pablo Picasso is a man of many talents and trades. Born in Spain in 1881, he was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, we will explore in this condensed educational exhibition, Master of Art, his styles, artistic innovations, and most beloved mediums.
Styles ∞ Blue Period (1901 – 1904) ∞ Proto-Cubism (Iberian and African Period) (1901 – 1904) ∞ Rose Period (1904 – 1906) ∞ Analytical Cubism (1907 – 1912) ∞ Synthetic Cubism (1912 – 1917) ∞ Classicism (1916 – 1924) ∞ Surrealism (1925-1936) ∞ Guernica and the Spanish Civil War (1937) ∞ World War II (1939 – 1945) ∞ Later Works (1945 – 1973)
Blue Period (1901 – 1904)
Inspirations: Influenced by a journey through Spain and by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas (1881-1901). Distinguishing Characteristics: Use of nearly monochromatic blues and blue greens, subjects of misfortune (beggars, drunks, prostitutes, the crippled, hungry, sick, and destitute). Significance: Reflection of Picasso’s own melancholy nature at the time; defined Picasso as a modern painter, addressing symbolical, philosophical, and humanitarian themes. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, L’étreinte (The Embrace), Color Lithograph, Masterworks Fine Art
Proto-Cubism (Iberian and African Period) (1901 – 1904)
Inspirations: Ancient sculpture of Iberia, African art (particularly totem art). Distinguishing Characteristics: Nudes, a disregard for perspective, the relations of body parts to each other, and the logic of natural appearance, stylistic and sexual extremes. Significance: Defied convention and defined Picasso as an innovative artist with artistic integrity. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Color Lithograph, Masterworks Fine Art
Rose Period (1904 – 1906) Inspirations: French culture, Picasso’s relationship with Fernande Olivier (1881 – 1966). Distinguishing Characteristics: Palette of pinks, reds, and oranges, romantic in nature, subjects of harlequins, circus performers, and clowns, subtlety of line. Significance: Step away from figurative work towards a more expressive and abstract use of color and line, beginning of artistic prosperity for Picasso. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Madame Ricardo Canals from the Barcelona Suite, Color Lithograph, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Analytical Cubism (1907 – 1912) Inspirations: Demoiselles d’Avignon, Paul Cézanne (1839 -1906), Georges Braque (1882 – 1963). Distinguishing Characteristics: Monochromatic, neutral coloration in brownish shades, relatively unemotional subject matters (still lives, nudes, landscapes), open figuration and abstraction. Significance: Developed a new way of seeing that reflected the modern times, emphasis on form over content. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Girl with Mandolin, (1910), Oil on canvas, New York, The Museum of Modern Art
Synthetic Cubism (1912 – 1917) Inspirations: Georges Braque (1882 – 1963), fascination with construction and deconstruction, modern urban street life. Distinguishing Characteristics: Texture, patterning, collage, text, newspaper scraps. Significance: Redefined the visual function of technique and of the materials used, viewed as the precursor of the artistic avantgarde throughout Europe. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, La Bouteille de Rhum (Bottle of Rum), Color Lithograph with Hand-Applied Stencil Coloring, Masterworks Fine Art
Classicism (1916 – 1924) Inspirations: Classical antiquity, the ballet, theater, high society, Picasso’s wife Russian ballerina Olga Koklova (1891 – 1954), photography. Distinguishing Characteristics: Figural imagery conveyed in the classical tradition, subjects of classicist nudes and portraits (emphasis on the human form, often monumentalized), beach scenes. Significance: A return to order amidst times of war, an assertion of Picasso’s artistic freedom to alter his style as he saw fit. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Mère et enfant (Mother and Child), Color Etching and Aquatint, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Surrealism (1925-1936) Inspirations: Surrealist writers, artists, and sculptors such as André Breton (1896 – 1966), Paul Eluard (1895 – 1952), Joan Miró (1893 – 1983), and Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966), Picasso’s mistress Marie Thérèse (1909 – 1977). Distinguishing Characteristics: Relations between the sexes, artist-and-model subjects, mythological subjects, a sense of violence and tension, disjointed and distorted forms. Significance: Reflections of Picasso’s own tumultuous love life as well as political tensions of the time, revealing of Picasso’s “unconscious.” EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Femme Torero II (Woman Bullfighter, II) from the Vollard Suite, Etching, Masterworks Fine Art
Guernica & Spanish Civil War (1937) Inspirations: Response to the bombing of the town of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government for the Paris International Exhibition at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. Distinguishing Characteristics: Monumental size, grey, black, and white color palette, combination of classical and surrealist styles with principles based on children’s drawings (the use of detail motifs, contouring, and perspective), the bull and the horse as important figures in Spanish culture. Significance: Powerful commentary on the horrors of civil war, anti-war symbol for peace, considered one of the most important 20th century works of art. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Guernica, (1937), Oil on canvas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Cason del Buen Retiro
World War II (1939 – 1945) Inspirations: Turbulence of WWII, the occupation of France by the Germans and Picasso’s subsequent isolation in his French studio. Distinguishing Characteristics: Cubist dissociation, figuration, and childlike symbolism, portraiture, compositions that relay a sense of tension rather than harmony, subtlety and allusiveness. Significance: Utilized ambiguity of form to disguise his critique of WWII and political turmoil, cautious allusions to violence and conflict, created works commemorating Jewish friends killed in concentration camps. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, Femme verte au chat (Green Woman with Cat), Color Lithograph with Hand-Applied Pochoir, Masterworks Fine Art
Later Works (1945 – 1973)
Inspirations: Communist ideology, masterworks by famed artists such as Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883), Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515 – 1586), El Greco (1541-1614), and Nicolas Poussin (1594 -1665), Picasso’s wife Jacqueline Rogue (1927 – 1986). Distinguishing Characteristics: Symbolic form, selfreferential, overtly sexual, reinterpretations of artwork by other great masters’, portraits (particularly of his wife Jacqueline), subject of the artist at work in his studio, bullfights, bathers, figures from classical mythology, sculptural and ceramic works, prints. Significance: Secured Picasso as a famous public figure with a worldwide reputation, Picasso viewed as the most important figure in and founder of Modern art. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso, La Corrida (The Bullfight), 1956, Color Lithograph, Masterworks Fine Art
Artistic Innovations ∞ Cubism ∞ Collage ∞ Constructed Sculpture
Cubism Objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form. Instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context EXAMPLE: Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910, Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia
Cubism
Cubism was born out of the interaction and collaboration that occurred between Picasso and Georges Braque (1882 - 1963) right after they met in 1907. When Braque saw Les Demoiselles (1907) for the first time, he went into a state of shock. However, many months after this initial encounter and much reflection, Braque reconsidered his initial reaction and responded with Large Nude (1908). From 1908 to 1914 the two artists were basically inseparable, forming a unique and everlasting partnership that was to define the nature of art.
Picasso, Still Life with Bottle of Rum, c. 1911, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Braque, Violin and Candlestick, c. 1910, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Collage
Collage is an art form and technique, incorporating the use of pre-existing materials or objects attached as part of a two-dimensional surface. The first deliberate and innovative use of collage in fine art came by Picasso in the spring of 1912:
Picasso, Still-Life with Chair-Caning, 1912 Oil on oil-cloth over canvas edged with rope, MusĂŠe Picasso
Picasso, Guitar, 1913 cut and pasted paper, printed paper, charcoal, ink and chalk on colored paper on board, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Constructed Sculpture Consists of making three-dimensional artistic compositions from putting together found objects. Picasso created the first assemblages by transforming his collages into threedimensional works. EXAMPLE: Pablo Picasso. Still life with Guitar. Variant state. Paris, assembled before November 15, 1913. Subsequently preserved by the artist. Paperboard, paper, string, and painted wire installed with cut cardboard box, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Mediums ∞ Ceramics ∞ Printmaking ∞ Glass ∞ Paintings
Mediums ∞ Sculptures
∞ Tapestries ∞ Stage Design
Ceramics
In the summer of 1946, Picasso began a love affair with ceramics that lasted the rest of life. Working alongside Madoura potters at the studio of Georges and Suzanne Ramie, they produced 4,000 different plates, bowls, vases, pitchers, and other forms in limited editions ranging from 25 to 500. Picasso’s involvement in producing the objects varied. Sometimes he made the clay molds used for designs, while other times he painted on plates or pitchers taken from the drying racks. Picasso and Madoura’s artisans then finished the prototypes and produced the editions, each distinctly identifiable as coming from the imagination of Picasso.
Picasso, Tete de chevre de profil, 1952 Ceramic, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Picasso, Woman's Head Crowned with Flowers, 1954 Ceramic, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Ceramics
Picasso had such a passion for the medium and certainly enhanced his skills as an artisan as can be seen in the craftsmanship that has lasted over 60 years, both in value and beauty. As Georges Ramie states, “he gave himself up to it heart and soul, with that tireless vehemence he brought to everything, the indomitable ardor of those vocations that are all the more fruitful for being slow to appear. And it was from that moment- and thanks to the prestige of the work Picasso was yet to do- that ceramics, which many had always considered a minor art, began to enjoy an eminence hitherto unsuspected and now universally admitted� (pg. 17).
Picasso, Cavalier Vase, 1952 Ceramic, Masterworks Fine Art
Picasso, Vallauris, 1956 Ceramic, Masterworks Fine Art
Printmaking
In his lifelong quest to transmit his thoughts and secure his legacy, Picasso sought out printmaking in the forms of etchings, Printmaking lithographs, and linocuts. He was attracted to the medium because for him it presented the truth. The process was long and tedious, but once the work was printed there was no editing, what was created was done. Picasso had such respect for the craft and curiosity for the material that he dedicated himself to creating masterpieces in the medium which remain one of his most enduring artistic legacies.
Picasso, Avant la pique, 1959, Linocut, Masterworks Fine Art
Picasso, Jacqueline, 1956, Color Lithograph, Masterworks Fine Art
Printmaking
The artisans that surrounded him for years in the workshop have remarked how it was a true passion for him. Working long Printmaking hours and being ever the perfectionist, he was friendly, entertaining, and a bit crazy. A man whose work was his own and was not to be retouched, every little detail was important and put there for a reason. “He looked, he listened, he did the opposite of what he had learnt- and it worked,” Mourlot, the famous publisher and printer, once said of Picasso’s printmaking skills.
Picasso, The Window of the Studio La Californie, 1959, Aquatint, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Picasso, Taureau - Winged Bull Watched by Four Children from the Vollard Suite, 1934, Etching, Masterworks Fine Art
Glass
Picasso's relationship with glass echo's that of his ceramics. He initially met Egidio Costantini in 1954, and their working Printmaking relationship began a few years later, due in part to Peggy Guggenheim's invitation for Picasso to come to Venice. Costantini translated the artist's drawings into glass sculptures which were produced in very limited editions. This master of La Fucina degli Angeli (the Forge of the Angels), Murano, transformed the centuries-old tradition of Italian glass blowing into a modern art. A 1965 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, recognized the importance of these rare sculptures. Picasso, Capra (Goat), 1954 Glass, Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Picasso, Dove of Peace, 1962 Blue Glass Relief, Masterworks Fine Art
Sculpture
Picasso’s sculptures are considered the most innovative artworks of the modern period. Picasso turned to sculpture throughout his career, Printmaking using the medium as a testing ground for ideas that would create crucial shifts in his practice at large. In much of his sculptural work, Picasso abandoned the traditional art of modeling in favor of assemblage and construction in which he introduced non-art materials into his artwork. He created around 1,228 sculptures.
Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909, plaster
Picasso, "The Picasso" (Untitled sculpture) 1969, Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL
Painting
Picasso’s oeuvre comprises of over 1,885 paintings from which he preferred to paint from the imagination or memory, and Printmaking worked in many different styles throughout his career as was presented earlier. Although he used color as an expressive element, he relied on drawing rather than subtleties of color to create form and space. It’s often believed that Picasso used common house paint in many of his paintings and he once said “A painting lives its life like a living being, experiencing the changes that daily life imposes on us. That’s quite natural given that it’s not the painting that lives, but those who look at it.” (Zervos, 174).
Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903, The Art Institute of Chicago
Picasso, Family at Saltimbanques, 1905, National Gallery of Art, DC
Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror, 1932 Museum of Modern Art
Tapestries
Picasso was commissioned to create tapestries and worked with several weavers who translated his artworks. One of the first Printmaking being Guernica that came from the atelier of Madame J. de la Baume Dürrbach in Cavalaire, France. It became the first of 18 Picasso tapestries that Rockefeller commissioned from Picasso and several museums and private collectors followed suite with Picasso initialing his own creations. Myrbor, a Parisian clothing and interior furnishings produced limited-edition carpets Picasso in the 1920s and tapestries in the 1930s. Yvette Cauquil-Prince, a French weaver translated works by Picasso around the same time, and later Denise René of Paris joined forces with the Tabard atelier in Aubusson to produce and show tapestries based on Picasso’s works.
Picasso, Jacqueline tapestry, c. 1967 Wool, Private
Picasso, Les clowns à la lune bleue 1968, Wool, Aubusson
Picasso, Volutes tapestry, c. 1965 Wool , Masterworks Fine Art, Inventory
Stage Design
Picasso began working in the theater in 1917 with the ballet Parade and continued for 47 years. Working on productions Printmaking such as Parade, Le Tricorne, Pulcinella, Cuadro Flamenco, Antigone, Mercure ,Le Train Bleu, Oedipus Rex, Afternoon of a Faun , and Icare, as well as his own plays Four Little Girls and Desire Caught by the Tail he was engaged in every project. From stage designs, costumes, collaborations, production all the way to writing and creation, Picasso was a theatre artist whose life revolved around the literary and artistic communities. EXAMPLE: Picasso, 1917 ballet Parade backdrop
Picasso was a man of many talents who constantly strove to challenge himself in new ways. He was never satisfied with the beauty that he surrounded himself with because there was always more waiting to be released from inside. He was fascinated by the world, people, himself; the infinity of existence. When asked what difference there was between his choice of mediums, Picasso replied they were all different, but what one was searching for in all of them was always the same. That could be said of his all his artistic endeavors as he was always searching, experimenting, “If there was a single truth, you couldn’t make a hundred paintings from the same subject.”
Masterworks Offerings Jacqueline at the Easel, 1956 Color Lithograph with Pochoir, Wofsy plate 56-061
Water Carrier, c. 1954 Virtually Unique Glass Sculpture
Bird No. 86, 1963
Heads, 1956 Madoura turned pitcher Ramie 368
Smoker with Green Cigarette, 1964 Color Aquatint, Baer 1168
Figures and Cavalier, 1968
Madoura plate Ramie 484
Madoura rectangular plaque Ramie 540
Carnaval (Carnival), 1958
Bull in the Arena, 1948 Madoura rectangular dish
Color Lithograph
Ramie 80
Visit our website for our complete Picasso inventory at http://www.masterworksfineart.com/
Masterworks Offerings Visage, 1960 Madoura round dish Ramie 446
Still Life with Charlotte, c. 1960 Collotype with Pochoir
Blue Vase, 1962 Virtually Unique Glass Sculpture
Le Roi (The King), 1951 Color Lithograph
The Faun, 1958 Color Etching and Aquatint Maeght Editeur 2101
Bird No. 91, 1961 Madoura round plate Ramie 485
Bulls in Vallauris, 1957 Color Linocut, Baer 1045
Divers, 1956 Madoura small convex wall plaque Ramie 374
Visit our website for our complete Picasso inventory at http://www.masterworksfineart.com/
Credits Daix, Pierre and Georges Boudaille. Picasso The Blue
and Rose Periods: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, 1900 – 1906. Greenwich: New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1967. Warncke, Carsten-Peter. Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Vol. I The Works 1890-1936. Edited by Ingo F. Walther. Germany: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Ramie, Georges. Picasso’s Ceramics. Viking Press: NY, 1976.
Warncke, Carsten-Peter. Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Vol. II The Works 1937-1973. Edited by Ingo F. Walther. Germany: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Zervos, Christian . Conversation avec Picasso, a Cahiers d’art Paris 7/10 (1935), p. 173-174 . Quotes from: Galassi, Susan. Picasso’s One Liners. Artisan: NY 1997.
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