Research on Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a spanish painter, draughtsman and sculptor. He was one of the most recognised figures in 20th century art. He is best known for cubism and also the variety of styles that he used within his work over the years.

I found out that Picasso slept during the day and that he worked at night, this had made me think about the possibility that i could take my photographs at night to give them a different overall effect.

A portrait of Daniel Henry Kahnweiler in 1910 by Picasso particuluarly interested me because it is all painted in squares and they almost look like shattered fragments of glass or an object of that kind. This has inspired me again and i think that i like the idea of working with shattered fragments to create an interesting yet visually pleasing image to the eye.

I Looked at Cubism which Picasso was very famous for, there are two types of cubism Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism.

Analytic cubism (1909-1912) - this is a style of painting that was developed by Picasso himself but also by Georges Braque one of Picasso's good friends and fellow painters. It was developed using monochrome, brown and neutral colours. They took apart objects and analyzed them in terms of there different shapes and the way that they looked from different angles and viewpoints. This also interests me alot by looking at the shapes of certain objects and how they look different from different angles. The second type is Synthetic Cubism, this was a further development where they would use wallpaper or newspaper cuttings, this was known as the first use of collage in fine art.

Alot to do with Cubism is making use of several different viewpoints. Analytical Cubism lasted until around 1911-1912 and was generally characterized by unemotional paintings that depicted usually very uneventful subjects, for example still lives.

Many paintings i found out were faceted, a technique that allows the artist to disect and reconstruct images however they want, in a way that depicts the essence and feel of the subject rather than just the appearance, this was very much abstract but you could still tell what the image was.

Picasso marked the beginning of a new era in the art world!!!