AIC: Pablo Picasso [Different phases / periods of his work]

Pablo Picasso: [1881-1973]

Picasso’s work is often categorized into periods..
The treatment of the different periods in this post, is a very simplified presentation. Nevertheless it still helps in understanding the artist. Needless to say, that the written text material have been gathered from many sources, and I've listed them in references..
Now coming back to..
Picasso’s work is often categorized into periods..
Most commonly accepted are..

• Early Years..
• Blue Period [1901-1904]..
• Rose Period [1904-1906]..
• African Influenced Period [1907-1909]..
• Analytical Cubism [1909-1912]..
• Synthetic Cubism [1912-1919]..
• Classicism and Surrealism [1920-1936]..
• Wartime [1937-1945]..
• Later Works [1946-1973]..

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Early Years..

Picasso depicted artistic talent early in his life. His father, a painter, recognized his son's talent at an early age and encouraged him accordingly. At 11, he was going to the Art School in Corunne. In 1895, at the age of 14, he was admitted to the Academy of Art in Barcelona..In 1897, Picasso, age 16, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, but he disliked formal instructions and left attending classes. In 1900, Picasso made his first trip to Paris, then the art capital of Europe.. In the early 20th century, Picasso divided his time between Barcelona and Paris..

 

 

 

The Old Guitarist [1903/1904]

Blue Period [1901-1904]

In Barcelona, he met with Carlos Casagemas, who became his friend and roommate. After Casagemas' suicide in 1901, Picasso was devastated. His depressed mood is evident in many of his paintings.. The period immediately following his friend's death is called as the Blue Period [1901-1904].. In this period Picasso painted mostly in shades of blue and portrayed melancholy subjects like beggars, street girls, alcoholics, old and sick people, despairing lovers, workers and drinkers in bars...

Famous paintings from this phase are..

- The Old Guitarist [1903/1904]..

- For more on The Old Guitarist.. click here..

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Half-Length Female Nude [1906]

Nude with a Pitcher [summer-1906]

Rose Period [1904-1906]..

After three years of portraying the poor and needy and lonely, though, Picasso struck out in new direction. In the winter of 1904, Picasso started introducing warm colors in his painting, particularly pink, which is Rose in French. This period is called the Rose Period [1904-1906]. In this period Picasso used warm palettes, particularly rose and painted less depressing subjects..

- Nude with a Pitcher [summer-1906]

- Half-Length Female Nude [1906]

 

 

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African Influenced Period [1907-1909]..

Picasso would never stick with one style. By 1907, his paintings showed influence of ancient sculptures and African Arts. He was also influenced by his fellow artists Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin..

 

 

 

 

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Daniel Henry Kahnweiler [Autumn, 1910]

Cubism [1909-1919]..

Picasso met Georges Braque in 1908. Both artists began breaking up the composition into geometric shapes. Braque and Picasso, invented a revolutionary art style Cubism [1909-1919].. Paintings are broken into geometric forms and showing subjects from more than one angle ..

Even the phase of Cubism is divided into phases...

Analytical Cubism [1908-1912], began by reducing natural forms into geometric elements and representing three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional planes..

- Head of a Woman [1909]

- Daniel Henry Kahnweiler [Autumn, 1910]

Synthetic Cubism [1912-1919] when Braque and Picasso began attaching physical objects in their paintings, using materials as newspaper, wood, sand and so forth..

 

 

 

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Mother and Child [1921]

The Red Armchair [1931]

 

Classicism and Surrealism [1920-1936]..

The collaboration between Picasso and Braque was ended by the First World War. Cubism made Picasso internationally famous and lodged him in the history of art, and changed modern art itself. However, he surprized everyone by returning to conventional figural and spatial values, painting stylized, monumental, proportionally random figures that made a classical impression. After the war, Picasso's style, reflected society's disillusionment and shock with the technological horrors of the war, and he reverted to a Classicist mode of representation. At the same time, however, he was continuing to push Cubism into new paths.

- Mother and Child [1921]

- The Red Armchair [1931]

During the '30s Picasso became tangentially connected with the Surrealist movement. Although André Breton, author of the Surrealist manifestos of 1924 and 1930, tried to includes him in the movement, Picasso's contact with Surrealism is only peripheral.

 

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Wartime [1937-1945]
The Spanish government had asked Picasso to paint a mural for the Spanish pavilion at the Paris World Exhibition. He planned to depict the subject “a painter in his studio”, but when he heard about the events in Guernica, he changed his original plans. After numerous sketches and studies, Picasso gave his own personal view of the tragedy. His gigantic mural Guernica is one of Picasso’s most famous work, he depicts the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War..


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Nude Under A Pine Tree, 1959..

Portrait of Sylvette David [1954]

Later Works / After WW-II [1946-1973]..

Picasso’s final works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. Devoting his full energies to his work, Picasso became more daring, his works more colorful and expressive, and from 1968 through 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings..

- Nude under a Tree [1959]

- Portrait of Sylvette David [1954]

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Gift to Chicago..

He was commissioned to make a Marquette for a huge 50-foot high public sculpture to be built in Chicago, known usually as the Chicago Picasso. What the figure represents is not known; it could be a bird, a horse, a woman or a totally abstract shape. The sculpture, one of the most recognizable landmarks in downtown Chicago, was unveiled in 1967. Picasso refused to be paid $100,000 for it, donating it to the people of the city.

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Some of his most famous paintings..
# La Vie, 1903..
# Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907..
# The Three Dancers, 1925..
# Guernica, 1937..
# Massacre in Korea, 1951..

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References:
History of art: Pablo Picasso ..
Pablo Picasso..
The Women of Picasso..

For more on.. [click on the link]..
The Art Institute of Chicago...