Pablo Picasso: works, features of style. Cubism of Pablo Picasso

It is unlikely that there will be a person on a planet who does not know the name of Pablo Picasso. The founder of Cubism and the artist of many styles influenced in the 20th century on the visual arts not only of Europe, but of the whole world.

Artist Pablo Picasso: childhood and years of study

One of the brightest artists of the 20th century was born in Malaga, in a house on the Merced Square, in 1881, on 25 October. Now there is a museum and the Picasso Foundation. Following the Spanish tradition at baptism, parents gave the boy a rather long name, which is an alternation of the names of the saints and the closest and esteemed in the family of relatives. In the end, it is known by the very first and the last. Surname Pablo decided to take the mother, considering his father too simple. Talent and craving for drawing from the boy showed up from his earliest childhood. The first and very valuable lessons he gave the father, who was also an artist. His name was Jose Ruiz. His first serious painting he wrote at eight years - "Picador". We can safely say that it was with her that the work of Pablo Picasso began. The father of the future artist received a proposal on the work of a teacher in La Coruna in 1891, and soon the family moved to the north of Spain. In the same place, Pablo was trained at the local art school for a year. Then the family moved to one of the most beautiful cities - Barcelona. Young Picasso at that time was 14 years old, and he was too young to study in La Loncho (school of fine arts). However, the father was able to ensure that he was admitted to entrance examinations on a competitive basis, with which he coped brilliantly. Four years later, his parents decided to place him in the best at that time advanced art school - "San Fernando" in Madrid. Studying at the academy quickly bored young talent, in its classical canons and rules it was cramped and even boring. Therefore, he devoted more time to the Prado Museum and study of his collections, and a year later returned to Barcelona. By the early period of his work include paintings written in 1986: "Self-portrait" by Picasso, "First Communion" (it depicts the sister of the artist Lola), "Portrait of the mother" (pictured below).

During his stay in Madrid, he first traveled to Paris, where he studied all the museums and paintings of the greatest masters. Subsequently, he will come to this center of world art more than once, and in 1904 he will finally move.

"Blue" period

This time period can be regarded as a litmus test, it is at this time that Picasso begins to manifest his personality, still subject to outside influence. A well-known fact: the talent of creative natures manifests itself as brightly as possible in difficult life situations. This is exactly what happened to Pablo Picasso, whose works are now known throughout the world. The rise was provoked and occurred after a prolonged depression caused by the death of a close friend of Carlos Casagemas. In 1901, at an exhibition organized by Vollard, 64 works of the artist were presented, but at that time they were still full of sensuality and brightness, the Impressionists' influence was clearly felt. In his legal rights, the "blue" period of his creative work gradually entered, manifesting himself as rigid contours of figures and loss of the three-dimensionality of the image, escaping the classical laws of artistic perspective. The palette of colors on his canvases becomes more and more monotonous, the emphasis is on blue. The beginning of the period can be considered "Portrait of Jaime Sabartes" and a self-portrait of Picasso, written in 1901.

Pictures of the "blue" period

Key words in this period for the master were such words as loneliness, fear, guilt, pain. In 1902, he again returned to Barcelona, but stay in it and can not. The tense situation in the capital of Catalonia, poverty from all sides and social injustice are pouring out into popular unrest, gradually covering not only the whole of Spain, but also Europe. Probably, this state of affairs had an impact on the artist, who in this year is working fruitfully and extremely much. At home, masterpieces of the "blue" period are created: "Two Sisters (Appointment)", "The Old Jew with a Boy", "Tragedy" (photo of the canvas above), "Life", where once again there is the image of the deceased Casagemas. In 1901 the painting "Lover of Absinthe" was also painted. It traces the influence of the popular at that time hobby "vicious" characters, characteristic of French art. The theme of absinthe sounds in many pictures. The work of Picasso, among other things, is full of drama. Especially evident in the eye is the hypertrophied hand of a woman, whom she seems to be trying to defend herself. Currently, the "Absinthe Lover" is kept in the Hermitage, having got there from a private and very impressive collection of works by Picasso (51 pieces) by SI Shchukin after the revolution.

As soon as the opportunity arises to return to Paris, the artist decides to use it without hesitation and leaves Spain in the spring of 1904. It is there that he will face new interests, feelings and impressions, which will give rise to a new stage in his work.

"Pink" period

In the work of Picasso, this stage lasted for a relatively long time - from 1904 (autumn) to the end of 1906 - and was not completely homogeneous. Most of the paintings of the period are marked by a bright range of colors, the appearance of ocher, pearly-gray, red-pink tones. Characteristic appearance and subsequent dominance of new for the artist's work themes - actors, circus performers and acrobats, athletes. Of course, the vast majority of the material he provided the circus Medrano, which in those years was located at the foot of Montmartre. The bright theatrical situation, costumes, behavior, variety of types as if returned P. Picasso to the world, albeit transformed, but real forms and volumes, natural space. Images in his paintings again became sensual and filled with life, brightness in contrast to the characters of the "blue" stage of creativity.

Pablo Picasso: works of the "pink" period

The paintings that marked the beginning of a new period were first exhibited at the end of the winter of 1905 in the Serurje Gallery - "Seated Nude" and "Actor". One of the recognized masterpieces of the "pink" period is the "Family of Comedians" (pictured above). The canvas has impressive sizes - in height and width more than two meters. Figures of circus figures are depicted against the blue sky, it is accepted that the harlequin on the right side is Picasso himself. All the characters are in static, and between them there is no internal affinity, each lagged inner loneliness - the theme of the whole "pink" period. In addition, it is worth noting the following works of Pablo Picasso: "Woman in a shirt", "Toilet", "Boy, leading a horse", "Acrobats. Mother and Son "," The Girl with the Goat ". All of them demonstrate the beauty to the viewer and serenity rare for the artist's paintings. A new impetus in creativity happened at the end of 1906, when Picasso traveled through Spain and found himself in a small village in the Pyrenees.

African period of creativity

With archaic African art, P. Picasso first encountered a thematic exhibition of the Trocadero Museum. He was impressed by pagan idols of primitive form, exotic masks and figurines, embodying the great power of nature and distanced from the smallest details. The ideology of the artist coincided with this powerful message, and as a result, he began to simplify his characters, making them like stone idols, monumental and sharp. However, the first work in the direction of this style appeared in 1906 - a portrait of the work of Pablo Picasso writer Gertrude Stein. He rewrote the picture 80 times and has completely lost faith in the opportunity to embody her image in the classical style. This moment can rightly be called a transitional from following the nature to deformation of the form. It is enough to look at such canvases as "Nude Woman", "Dance with Veils", "Dryad", "Friendship", "Bust of a Sailor", "Self-portrait".

But perhaps the most striking example of the African stage of Picasso's work is the picture "Avignon girls" (pictured above), over which the master worked for about a year. She crowned this stage of the artist's creative career and largely determined the fate of art in general. For the first time the canvas saw the light only thirty years after its writing and became the open door to the world of the avant-garde. The bohemian circle of Paris literally split into two camps: "for" and "against". At the moment the painting is kept in the Museum of Modern Art of the city of New York.

Cubism in the work of Picasso

The problem of uniqueness and accuracy of the image remained in the first place in the European fine arts until the moment when Cubism burst into it. The motivation for its development is considered by many to be the question that arose among artists: "Why draw?" A credible image of what you see in the beginning of the 20th century could be taught to almost anyone, and literally on the heels there was a photograph that threatened to completely and completely oust everything rest. Visual images become not only plausible, but also accessible, easily replicated. Cubism Pablo Picasso in this case reflects the individuality of the creator, refusing the plausible image of the outside world and opening entirely new possibilities, the boundaries of perception.

The early works include: "A pot, a glass and a book," "Bathing," "A bouquet of flowers in a gray jar," "Bread and a vase with fruit on a table," etc. In the canvases, one can clearly see how the artist's style changes and acquires More and more abstract features towards the end of the period (1918-1919). For example, "Harlequin", "Three Musicians", "Still Life with a Guitar" (pictured above). The association of viewers with the creativity of the master with abstractionism did not suit Picasso at all, he was important to the emotional message of the pictures, their hidden meaning. In the end, the style he created, Cubism, gradually ceased to inspire the artist and interest, opening the way for new trends in creativity.

Classical period

The second decade of the 20th century was rather difficult for Picasso. So, 1911 was marked by a story with stolen statuettes from the Louvre, which put the artist in a bad light. In 1914 it turned out that even after living so many years in the country, for Picasso, France is not ready to fight in the First World War, which divorced him with many friends. And the following year, his beloved Marcel Umber died.

To return more realistic in the work of Pablo Picasso, whose works were filled with new readability, figure and artistic logic, many external factors also influenced. Including a trip to Rome, where he was imbued with ancient art, as well as communication with the ballet company of Diaghilev and the acquaintance with the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who soon became the second wife of the artist. The beginning of the new period can be considered her portrait of 1917, which in some ways was of an experimental nature. Russian ballet Pablo Picasso not only inspired the creation of new masterpieces, but also gave his beloved and long-awaited son. The most famous works of the period: Olga Khokhlova (pictured above), Pierrot, Still Life with a jug and apples, Sleeping Peasants, Mother and Child, Women Running on the Beach, Three Graces .

Surrealism

The division of creativity is nothing but a desire to lay it down on the shelves and squeeze it into definite (stylistic, temporal) frames. However, the creativity of Pablo Picasso, whose famous paintings adorn the best museums and galleries in the world, this approach can be called very conventional. If you follow the chronology, then the period when the artist was close to surrealism, falls on 1925-1932. It is not at all surprising that at every stage of the master's work the muse visited the muse, and when O. Khokhlova wished to recognize herself in his canvases, he turned to neoclassicism. However, creative people are fickle, and soon the life of Picasso came in the young and very beautiful Maria Teresa Walter, who at the time of her acquaintance turned 17 years old. She was destined for the role of a mistress, and in 1930 the artist bought a castle in Normandy, which for her became a home, and for him - a workshop. Maria Theresa was a faithful companion, staunchly enduring the creativity and love of the creator, maintaining friendly correspondence until the death of Pablo Picasso. Works of the period of surrealism: "Dance", "Woman in the chair" (in the photo below), "Bather", "Nude on the beach", "Dream", etc.

The Second World War Period

The sympathy of Picasso during the war in Spain in 1937 belonged to the Republicans. When, in the same year, Italian and German aviation destroyed Guernica, the political and cultural center of the Basque people, Pablo Picasso, a city in ruins, depicted on a huge painting of the same name in just two months. He was literally seized by the horror of the threat that hung over the whole of Europe, which could not but affect the work. Emotions were not expressed directly, but embodied in tonality, its gloominess, bitterness and sarcasm.

After the wars died down, and the world came to a relative equilibrium, restoring everything that had been destroyed, Picasso's creativity also acquired more happy and bright colors. His paintings, written in 1945-1955, have a Mediterranean flavor, are very atmospheric and partly idealistic. At the same time, he begins to work with ceramics, creating a lot of decorative jugs, dishes, plates, figurines (the photo is presented above). The works that were created in the last 15 years of life are very uneven in stylistics and quality.

One of the greatest artists of the twentieth century - Pablo Picasso - died at the age of 91 in his villa in France. He was buried near the castle belonging to him Vovenart.