Rosario

The interesting thing about Picasso is that he changed styles all through his life.
Picasso explored many styles throughout his painting career. He was a child prodigy in art and his earliest works had a classical, academic style. He painted more realistically during his Blue and Rose periods- each of which was characterized by paintings with blue and rose-colored hues. Later, Picassoexperimented with both analytical and synthetic cubism. In his cubist paintings he painted people and things as abstracted shapes-- circles, squares, and triangles. In addition to painting, Picasso experimented with other art forms like sculpture.
Besides Cubism, which he invented in cooperation with Georges Braque, he painted in different styles, all his own, not having any -ism names.
When the subjectof monochromatic color schemes comes up, I think of Picasso and his “Blue Period”. I also think of this particlular painting, a prime example of that period, as it has been a great favorite of mine since I was a child.
Many years ago, I visited the Art Institute in Chicago and for some reason, the fact that this painting is in residence there had slipped my mind. I came around a corner and thereit was! It’s a good thing there happened to be a bench right in front of it, because its power literally knocked me off my feet. I still get a shiver just thinking about it.
Pablo Picasso’s father was an art instructor, so he was trained as an artist as a very young man. Having outgrown his possibilities in Madrid (Spain) by the age of 19, he went to live in Paris where he was a small fish in alarger pond and had to struggle to figure where he fit into the society of artists there. Because he identified with those living on the fringes of society, he began to paint pictures of the downtrodden, depicting them in all of their misery, using a muted palette of blue - the color of melancholy. His sadness during this period was intensified by the suicide of a young friend. This became knownas his “Blue Period” (1901-1904), one of two very prolific periods that were preambles to “Cubism”. Les miserables of the Blue Period gave way to the the clowns and other circus figures of the “Rose Period” (1904-1906), a much more cheerful body of work over all. After that, beginning with his experiments in Cubism, Picasso became a power to be reckoned with in the world of modern art and continuedto be an innovator of the highest order for the rest of his life. This will not be the last we hear of him in our “LegaSome have said that Wallace Stevens wrote “The Man With the Blue Guitar” after viewing Picasso’s “Old Guitarist” and it certainly seems as if it could be so.
I reprint the whole text of the poem here although, honestly, I find it a bit disconcerting and difficult to stay with(it’s ok to admit these things). But the first six lines, which I highlighted with bold blue type, say it all, in my opinion. I have framed them on my studio wall to remind me that it is not always necessary to go by the book - that my art is my “blue guitar”, and through it, I can redefine my world to match my fancy. ‘
Cubism
Working with geometric angles, simplified shapes and classical shadingtechniques, Picasso became the father of cubism. The cubist style developed between 1906 and 1910, with the Demoiselles d'Avignon frequently called the first cubist work.
Classicism
After World War I, Picasso returned to his classical roots. His works in the 1930s reveal his acquaintance with the surrealist movement in bold color, whimsical shapes and a playful juxtaposition of images.
Picassoas a Political Artist
Picasso was the most famous artist of his day. The famous Guernica is the best known portrayal of the fascism and brutality of the Spanish civil war in Picasso's homeland.
The Late Period
Picasso's late years were some of his most productive ones. He painted the women he loved and the people who mattered to him. He also created works based on the Old Masters of Europe.\...