Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso is without doubt the best known artist in

this century, even though he may not be the most revered. Still, critics and art lovers alike never stop praising the works of Picasso, partly for their brilliance, partly for the originality he constantly displayed, and to a degree also for the variety of moods and styles he delved in.

"One painting alone will tell you very little of the art

of Pablo Picasso," write the editors in the Modern Reference

Library ("The Club of the Wild Men" 388-391). They state that Picasso was "forever changing his style" in order to "attack some new problem in Art." The editors continue:

He is said never to have left a problem unsolved; but the minute he is satisfied with what he has done, he turns to something else. So you can see that he has not, as so many artists have done, repeated his own successes until people grow bored with his worn-out mannerisms.

The above quote comes from a library of books initially published in 1939; and the great Picasso, of course, was to change several times again before his death in the mid-1980s. But as old as the book is, it interestingly tells the story of Picasso's refusal to conform or to become predictable.

The group of "Wild Men" artists included Henri Matisse,

Raoul Dufy, and the highly influential Cezanne; along came Picasso and Georges Brague to join the club, in the early 1900s, because, the editors say:

[Picasso and Braque] realized they would seem like wild men to the public an

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akes up the challenge of a new idea. He makes first of all a clean sweep of all preconceived notions as to how to proceed. Then, with his peculiar, innate ability to put himself in the shoes, as it were, of the first cave man to scratch a picture on the rock, he makes the painting over again, step by step, to suit himself. It must have been a time of great joy for Picasso, to do such an interesting kind of art form, on site, in a theatre, with actors bringing his genius to life, literally. His long time friend and colleague, Raynal, said that apparently this period was a kind of mellowing period for the great man, and that "his instinct had warned the artist that it was time to pause, to relax perhaps, and take stock of himself." So, the man who kept his critics confused with "sudden, bewildering changes of style," now was painting flowers, fans and baskets of fruit, and also Renaissance kinds of pictures, a kind of Picasso "classicism." This period, through the early 1920s, included wonderful works like "Mother And Child" in 1922, and "The Lovers." For this observer, "The Lovers" is the favorite Picasso work, because it immediately draws to mind the great Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet. Since love is the number one

Category: Arts - P