Picasso Reflection

When given the chance to research an iconic artist I chose Pablo Picasso. Being the son of José Ruiz black sale and Maria Picasso Lopez wife was difficult. At the age of 10 little Pablo had to mourn the loss of his youngest sister. Picasso lived in one of the best outlets for what he did best paint. Beautiful cathedrals and architecture made Spain an inspirational place for an artist to live. Picasso a had good painter’s pedigree, his Dad was an accomplished painter and an art teacher and from a very young age, Pablo showed real talent for art. Picasso lived a tortured life perhaps events like his girlfriend committing suicide is what lead him to his sexual and twisted paintings. Picasso’s paintings show what seems to be hatred towards women. Although his paintings are often viewed as violent we can all agree that he was a thought provoking an inspiring painter.

Picasso is one of the founders of the Cubist Movement but he worked in many different mediums and his work is grouped together by periods. Picasso was innovative and challenged conventional art but his training was very traditional. At the age of 13 he admitted into the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and soon after that he went to study at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the most prestigious art school in Madrid. In 1901, Picasso’s Blue period began followed by the Rose period in 1905 and the African Influenced Period in 1908 and finally Cubism in 1909. Each of theses periods had their own unique characteristics and back stories. The Blue period is full of shades of blues and greens and has subjects that are often blind and under fed. The Rose period had more color and life; its subjects are often circus people, acrobats and harlequins. Cubism is a form of picking apart objects and analyzing their shapes, this period is characterized by his use of browns and neutral tones.

In 1929, Picasso painted the Large Nude in a Red Arm Chair. This is clearly a painting that gives you a feeling of unrest. A woman, sitting in an arm chair is melting out of herself. Her face looks tortured and pained, her mouth opened wide in horror. She has deformed, elongated limbs and her womanly body parts are misshapen and distorted. The part of her that is melting out seems incomplete, she feels like just half a woman with only one breast. A window is at the top of the painting, could this be a possible way out, an escape that she may one day take? Or is that a blank painting, showing the nothingness of her life?

The nude in a Red Armchair

(my Picasso poem about the painting I observed)

There is always someone there

Someone hiding within

My lesser self

My lesser half

There is always something missing

One thing that got away

The thing I never had

The thing I’ll never say

Resting in my armchair

Just trying to forget

Always feeling broken

My needs are rarely met

On the surface I am one

Another lies just under

Just under is what you can’t see

Just under is the real me

Deformed, misshapen

I am so incomplete

Finding you inside myself

Always makes me weep.