Painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright sums up Pablo Picasso. Today marks the death anniversary of the man who ‘shaped’ the world.
Known for his ‘Cubism’, he along with Matisse and Duchamp ushered in a new age of art in the 20th century.
Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas.
His work is often categorised into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919).
Cubism As Art form:
Developed by Picasso and Georges Braques, Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art. It was the first style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century in response to a world that was changing with unprecedented speed.
Cubism was an attempt by artists to revitalise the tired traditions of Western art which they believed had run their course. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been the rule since the Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age.
A typical Cubist painting depicts real people, places or objects, but not from a fixed viewpoint. Instead it will show you many parts of the subject at one time, viewed from different angles, and reconstructed into a composition of planes, forms and colours. The whole idea of space is reconfigured: the front, back and sides of the subject become interchangeable elements in the design of the work.
(Images: Wikipedia)