Pablo Picasso's Periods of Life and Artistic Styles Related to Them

Pablo Picasso was one of the most noteworthy and influential artists of the 20th century. He was born in Spain on the 25th of October 1881, in Málaga, Spain. Picasso was a painter, sculptor, ceramicist, printmaker, and stage designer. He superstitiously believed that producing art would keep him alive, this led him to for nearly 80 of his 91 years, devoting himself to it. In the course of these 80 years, he made a significant contribution to modern art in the 20th century.

Associated primarily with pioneering Cubism (“bringing different views of subjects, usually objects or figures, together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted” ) alongside Georges Braque, he also invented collage (“the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric, and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a supporting surface” ) and made major contributions to Symbolism (“the nineteenth-century movement that advocated the expression of an idea over the realistic description of the natural world” )and Surrealism (“A twentieth-century literary, philosophical and artistic movement that explored the workings of the mind, championing the irrational, the poetic and the revolutionary” ).

Picasso was born and raised in a very artistic family; his father Don José Ruiz Blasco was a painter and art teacher. As a boy, Picasso exhibited a “prodigious talent” for drawing. He acquired the skill of drawing and painting from his father as a child and by the time he reached age 13, one could argue that his skill level had transcended his father's.

At the age of fourteen, his family moved to Barcelona, where he hastily applied to the city's prestigious School of Fine Arts. The school was known to cater to students several years older than teen Picasso. However, Picasso proved himself to be more than good enough to attend, submit an entrance exam so extraordinary that he was granted an exception and admitted.

Picasso returned to Barcelona in 1899 and befriended a group of artists and intellectuals. Their base was a café called El Quatre Gats, translation, The Four Cats. It was at this small café that Picasso was inspired and motivated to break the chains of the classical methods he was taught and trained to follow. This new freedom started what became “a lifelong process of experimentation and innovation.”

Picasso is believed to have died from congestive heart failure, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner on April 8, 1973, at the age of 91, in Mougins, France.

Picasso’s Blue Period

The Blue Period of Picasso began in 1901 and came to an end in 1904. This was a period in Picasso’s life where he painted mostly monochromatic paintings, the main colors being blue and blue-green, infrequently he would bring in other colors to brighten up a painting. They are said to have been painted in an extremely somber time in Picasso’s life. People often question whether a Picasso was battling depression at the time as something pivotal would have had to have occurred in order for him to suddenly start painting everything in subdued blue tones. The subject matter of his work was also incredibly solemn, he focused mainly on beggars, street urchins, the old and frail, and the blind.

It is said that Picasso had a few difficult years in which he had no permanent studio to work in, apparently, success in this time period for him was scarce. These blue works seem to reflect and link back to this time in his life of relative poverty and struggle. It is unknown where the starting point was for this period but it is known that Picasso was influenced by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Casagemas committed suicide, by shooting himself in the temple, on the 17th of February, 1901, at the Hippodrome Cafe in Paris, France. Picasso himself stated, 'I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas’ s death'. “Casagemas was a poet that fell victim to unrequited love and ultimately took his own life after attempting to kill his scorned lover. His suicide had a deep and profound effect on Picasso, who was struggling as an unrecognized and poverty-stricken artist living in Paris at the time.”

Picasso’s subject matter in this period was rather somber in this time period as it revolved mainly around beggars, drunks, prostitutes, and the crippled, hungry, sick, and destitute. Picasso would elongate the forms of his subjects, creating a haunting, supernatural effect on his work. His work was focused on these subjects and their misfortune. Outcasts seem to be the focus of a lot of Picasso’s art, he even proceeds to explore these rejected characters in his rose period.
The Blue period made Picasso into a modern artist. He used it to showcase his sadness, in his life while enduring difficulties in his life. This period brilliantly showcases Picasso’s ability to channel his misery and hardship in life into a “revolutionary form of artistic expression.”

Analysis of Work 'Death of Casagemas'

In this work we see Casagemas lying seemingly peacefully. At first glance, it seems like she is asleep. The undertones of the painting are mainly blue but the candlelight brings warmth to the painting that creates the illusion of peace.

The closer you get to the painting you realize that there is a bullet hole in his temple and we realize the figure is of a dead man. This revelation gives a whole new perspective to view this painting because now we see the significance of the color choices. Casagemas’ skin is a blue/green hue and this could be representative of the fact that he is dead and his body is beginning to go blue. This is a dark twist to a seemingly peaceful painting; this feeling of peace still lingers and we sense that in death Casagemas found peace.

Picasso expressed his sorrow through this painting, the blue hues are representative of sadness and the cold. We, however, can also see that Picasso believed his friend was finally at peace being at rest.

The Rose Period

The Rose Period of Picasso started in 1904 and ended in 1906. This period was a huge contrast to the preceding Blue Period. In this period Picasso favored a lighter, warmer color palette, subtle use of line, and idealized forms. It is said that in these few years, Picasso was in a content and happy relationship with Fernande Olivier, a French artist, and model who became his muse and mistress, whom he had met in 1904. Critics believe this to be one of the possible reasons he changed his style of painting.

However, there is a starkly contrasting opinion on the idea that the Rose period signified happiness. Some believe that Picasso's depression didn't come to an end with the beginning of his rose period, it is thought to have lasted until the end of his cubist period. Only in Picasso’s Neo-classicist period did his work begin the show the playfulness that would remain a prominent feature of his work for the rest of his life. Picasso's contemporaries didn't even distinguish between a blue and a rose period but regarded the two as one single period.

It was in his Rose Period that Pablo Picasso would, for the first time in his career, develop stylistic means that would become part of his Picasso Style, which made him the most important artist of the 20th century. The Rose Period highlights Picasso’s transition from figurative work towards a more expressive and abstract use of color and line and represents the beginning of artistic prosperity and renown for Picasso. The subject matter of this period seems to feature Harlequins, circus performers, and clowns, more spirited subjects, frequently. This could be a symbol of Picasso’s happiness in his relationship with Olivier, as Harlequins often played the role of the romantic hero at that time.

The African Period

The African period was a short period, it was a bright and colorful synthetic stage, and started in 1907 and lasted till 1908. Picasso discovered the archaic art of Africa at this point and felt the need to change his own creative method under its influence. He became acquainted with the African art at the ethnographic exhibition at the Museum of the Trocadero, Paris, in the spring of 1907, on a trip with his friend, the artist André Derain, after being inspired by an African sculpture shown to him by Henri Matisse at Gertrude Stein's Paris apartment. It featured simple, primitive forms of ancient sculpture as idols, statuettes, and masks carried a huge artistic charge. It is also referred to as “Cezanne Cubism” because at that time Picasso was greatly influenced by Cezanne’s method of simplifying the image. This method focused on the fact that the basis of any shape, lies simple geometry, a sphere, a cylinder, or a cone.

Picasso's style of painting and drawing this period featured a heavy emphasis on sharply etched bold lines, the use of warmer colors interspersed with blue tones, background and foreground blending, unnatural depictions of human figures as well as drastic distortions of limbs and faces. Picasso simplified the shapes in his work, in turn making his subjects look like wooden or stone idols. Characters’ faces started to resemble ritual masks. The fusion of characters with surroundings was the main thing that Picasso learned from African art as in their art the primitive man did not separate himself from nature. In Picasso’s paintings, the background began to be as tangible as the figures.

Analysis of Work 'Head of a Man'

In this painting, we see as the title of its states, the head of a man, the inspiration Picasso drew from the African painting style can be blatantly seen in the work. His use of crosshatching showcases the primitive nature of man and the combination of these bright colors, orange, red, and yellow, are common in a lot of African work. You can see that even though Picasso was inspired by African art he still found a way to express himself through this new style.

You can see Picasso’s cubist style in the work, the face has been put together with the use of simple shapes. This is more obvious in the nose and in the shape of the head. The subject matter also stayed true to Picasso's work and style as he is known to do a lot of portraiture and faces. In this style, Picasso explored a new artistic style but still expressed his style through it.

Cubism

In the years 1909 to 1912 Picasso and Georges Braque worked closely together closely to develop what we now know to be Analytical Cubism. They were influenced by the volumetric treatment of form by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. The two artists believed they were presenting a new kind of reality that broke away from Renaissance tradition, especially from the use of perspective and illusion. They would show multiple views of an object on the same canvas to convey more information than could be contained in a single limited illusionistic view.

The Cubist style emphasizes the flat, two-dimensional surface of a picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, and modeling as well as refuting time-honored theories of art as an imitation of nature. They weren’t bound to copying form, texture, color, and space; instead, they preferred to present a new reality in their paintings that depicted radically fragmented objects whose several sides were seen simultaneously. The monochromatic color scheme was suited to the presentation of complex, multiple views of the object, which was now reduced to overlapping opaque and transparent planes. Cubism led to abstraction and necessitated new ways of looking at art. Both artists brought Analytic Cubism incredibly close to the point of complete abstraction.

Analysis of Work 'Portrait of Ambroise Vollard'

This is a portrait of Ambroise Vollard. It almost seems like we are seeing his reflection in a broken mirror the pieces randomly dispersed over the canvas. The color scheme is very much monochrome and dominated by dark tones, which draws the viewer full attention to the figure. The fragmentation of the whole image makes the face of the model that much more dramatic as it is the only thing we can clearly make out.

Even though this style Picasso can express raw emotion when looking at this piece the combination of the color scheme and the expression of the model we see deep sadness and a sense of unfulfillment. Cubism is a very violent style; however, Picasso manages to translate a range of emotions through this style.

Surrealism

Surrealism aimed to revolutionize human experience, rejecting a rational vision of life in favor of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams. The movement’s poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded, and the unconventional. Surrealists scorned rationality and technology and all the other values of the parental generation that led to the horror of world war, placing their faith instead in an alternate reality of chance, desire, coincidence, and dreams; the goal was to create beautiful art. Many surrealist artists used automatic drawing or writing to unlock ideas and images from their unconscious minds, and others sought to depict dream worlds or hidden psychological tensions.

In examining the periods such as the Blue and Rose periods it is clear that Picasso used art to express himself, surrealism seems like the perfect way to do so, however, Picasso never fully embraced surrealism, he didn’t like the idea of letting the pencil or paintbrush wander over the paper without exerting conscious control and letting the image forms itself. However, that didn’t stop him from participating, he was influenced by the interest that the surrealists took in the unconscious as the mind's dark side, filled with deep fears, inexpressible longings, and the most basic drives.

Analysis of work 'The Sleeping Peasants'

In this painting the color scheme is bright and vibrant, regardless of the situation, the models are in, being peasants, the use of color gives the impression that they are content with their situation. Even the placement of the models and the way they are carelessly draped over each other. This makes them seem at peace and overall there are no somber emotions attached to this image. There is also an erotic air to the painting, with the woman's thrown-back head and uncovered breast.
Through this style Picasso could express himself completely with no limits to what he could do, his imagination would be able to take hold of the steering wheel and just go as surrealism encourage this.

War Years

In 1936, a Civil war between the freshly formed republican government and the fascist regime of General Franco broke out in Spain. Picasso did all he could to support the anti-fascists: his canvas was his battlefield, and his weapons were the brush and paints.

It is clear that the war directly affected Picasso emotionally, the evidence is seen in his work. In 1937 Picasso produced a series titled, “The Dream and Lie of Franco.' It was printed in postcard format and part of the proceeds gained from the postcards being sold was donated by the artist to support the republican government of Spain. The card depicted scenes of the suffering of the Spanish people: houses on fire, weeping women, refugees and corpses, and General Franco in the midst of it all, in his most disgusting role types, and, of course, the symbol of wrath - the bull, attacking him.

It didn’t stop there, Picasso continued his trend of anti-war art with the Guernica, this was probably Picasso's most famous work as well as his most powerful political statement. The piece was painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice in the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

When the Second World War broke out, Picasso settled in Paris where he continued working, creating pictures pertaining but not limited to the anti-war topic. The works of this period do not depict military actions directly, but resorting to the language of painting they convey everything that war brings over once started: pain, fear, and despair.

Analysis of Work 'Guernica'

This piece of work for me was one of Picasso’s most expressive pieces. The Spanish Civil war had such an impact on it and he used this painting as an outlet for all of his raw emotions.

In the painting we see humans and animals scattered onto a background of broken geometric shapes. This painting is extremely reminiscent of Picasso’s cubic style. When you looked closely at the painting you also see newspaper print in the background texture of the horse. The color scheme of the painting is predominantly black, Picasso may have done this intentionally to represent death itself.

Picasso illustrated the brutalization and dehumanization of humans during this time of war. However, humans weren’t the only ones affected, animals shared the same fate. We see this in Picasso’s use of the bull and horse in his painting.

During this time of war, Picasso made a series of paintings and sketches that he used to express himself effectively.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have found through all my research that Picasso indeed used different artistic styles to express himself. In my essay I looked at his work in themes, these themes, however, are not in chronological order and some of the pieces overlap each other. This shows the fact that Picasso would switch themes based on what he was trying to express and how.

Another major part of this was his use of color. Like the blue period for example, when Picasso was experiencing and going through depression he would use the color blue predominantly along with cool tones in his paintings, blue has a history of being used to depict sadness and it communicated exactly what Picasso was feeling to the viewer. In the Rose period, Picasso used mostly red and warm tones in his work to represent the feeling of love and romance he was feeling. In the African period, he used a mixture of warm primary and secondary colors to express the primitive nature of humans. We also see Picasso using color theory in the war period to showcase the darkness and death the war brought and in his surrealist works to explore the idea of the imaginations view on everyday situations and things.
I have learned through my research and analysis of Picasso’s work that there are multiple ways in which artists utilize to convey and reflect their emotions to their audience. Some conventional, like the use of blue in the Blue period to represent sadness, and some unconventional, like the use of cubism to convey anger and aggression. Art is a form of self-expression, so there is not just one way in which emotions are conveyed as we have seen through Picasso’s use of different styles and techniques.

Picasso used art as an outlet and a form of self-expression and he translated this to his audience through many different ways, sometimes all at the same time.