Pablo Picasso- Understanding Modern Art

Pablo Picasso has been nominated by some as the greatest artist of the 20th century this claim however can seem a little hard to believe for some people and actually see his work Picasso's canvas is full of gurning dripping and misshapen figures of their nightmarish color palettes and creative facial feature placements don't look much like the gray air works of alder were used to and yes Picasso was again and again held up as being the greatest artist of the 20th century why what exactly was the reason for his supposed greatness just what is the deal with all those faces well in this video we're gonna take a little look at those questions and try to understand a little better the hows and whys of the castle Pablo Picasso just in case you didn't know was a Spanish painter sculptor ceramicist print maker poet and practitioner of just about any other art form you would care to mention born in 1881 the infant Picasso almost didn't survive his own birth when he was delivered the nurses found he was limp and silent the Midwife declared a stillbirth but the young Picasso was saved by his uncle who gently took the newborn in his arms and promptly blew cigar smoke into his face which caused the infant Picasso to begin to stir and cry the young Picasso having survived his birth began from an early age to show his inclinations towards painting his father who was an art teacher may have had something to do with this from the age of seven he trained Picasso in the academic style and it was not long before his son that soon surpassed him in the technical matters Picasso's early paintings show his enormous skill and talent as we can see in this early work showing his family a communion a religious scene which would both please his father and prove his skills following the family's relocation to Barcelona Picasso applied to attend the School of Fine Arts a prestigious school for artists Picasso's father managed to convince the schools examiners to allow his so to take the entrance exams process was usually took a whole month but which Picasso completed in just one week an impressive feat that has made more impressive by the fact that he was just 13 at the time the School of Fine Arts however was not the place where he would make his name he quickly tired of the instructors and their stifling traditions and methods just like all art students he soon began skipping classes drinking cans hanging around with bohemian intellectual types from these influences and the Academy's lack of innovation Picasso decided that the traditional route of academic painting was not for him if he wanted to produce great ash he would have to look outside of the traditional art school approaches to this end he would head to the capital of the art world Paris where the cutting edge painters of the day such as Suzanne Gauguin and the Impressionists had made their names making arish the fine art schools of the day probably would not like during Picasso's time in Paris he was as is not uncommon for many artists disgustingly poor he shared a small flat with a friend and supposedly would often have to burn his works just to keep the place warm living in such circumstances did however give him the opportunity to meet many of the intellectual and artistic Ally of Paris namely people like onry Matisse or the poet Apollinaire who fed his ideas and influenced his development it is perhaps because of these influences that we start to see the Picasso we know today emerging characterized by his famous blue and rose periods Picasso's work in these periods becomes much more modern than his previous era at school efforts and begins to break away from the traditional methods in noticeable ways including limited palettes of color non-traditional subjects and an often scandalous disregard for proper painting practice these unusual and evocative paintings with their deft handling of figures and expressive content soon attracted the attention of the Parisian art world including wealthy art eaters such as Leo and Gertrude Steen whose support would prove crucial they were not the only ones interested either Ambrose Willard the IRA theater who championed Paula Zahn offered his support perhaps seen in Picasso's emerging modern style a continuation of Suzanne's work Suzanne's posthumous show in 1907 had solidified his role as a major influence on all modern errors and created a lot of interest in finding new ways of painting as Susanne himself had done Suzanne will be a major influence on Picasso's work but there was another influenced old play just as big a role will come from a much more unexpected place in 1907 Picasso saw the collection of African tribal masks on display in the museum these relics have been brought back from the colonies in Africa it's stuffed into museums which to this day remains a great way to get away with otherwise criminal theft the masks the Picasso exudes an almost spiritual energy their simple forms and rough craftsmanship seemed somehow purer and more direct as artworks than their overly formal counterparts in the art schools and galleries of his day to Picasso they represented a simpler more direct a more effective way of expressing an idea these masks eventually began to find their way into Picasso's paintings there was inspiration from another time and place giving a viewpoint from another perspective alongside the works of artists like Suzanne these masks would play a crucial role in the development of Picasso's ideas and this can best be seen in what is probably the first great masterpiece of the 20th century the demos LZ Avignon the demo sells d'Avignon is an image you could describe charitably as horrifying even to us today who are so used to images both real and created of unbridled horror the painting which depicts the accusatory stares of a group of female brothel workers was so controversial that sat facing the wall in Picasso's studio for years everyone who saw it was repulsed even because of himself Augie got too far and yet this painting eventually end up being seen as one of the most important paintings of the 20th century despite its gruesome appearance the title the demos ELLs d'Avignon or roughly the women of avignon fares to a street fame for prostitution in Barcelona its main subject the female nude is itself not unusual having been a perennial a popular subject for artists practically forever the hardened outgoing public of Picasso's day who have been well used to seeing a few bare asses of paintings with demos ELLs was unlike anything they had ever seen unlike the new ones of the past these figures do not recline in surrender or shy away too early instead they sterically cut across the canvas and stare called me back at us this confrontational tone is enhanced by the handling of the paint which in its day was tantamount to barbarism the Reds pinks and blue tones of the canvas Korea disjointed unnatural color scheme revolt flesh mystery and danger the figures themselves occupy a broken flattened space where hints of drapery and a suspiciously placed bowl of perhaps forbidden fruit are discernible not much else the figure on the Left seems to invite us into the scene drawing back in a curtain made of power the background itself the contorted faces scowl of the viewer from this patchwork wall as if to deny them the pleasure that a viewer would normally expect from a painting the whole thing howls in a way that pictures really hadn't before and expresses a rawness that was inconceivable anything else that come before this rawness is the reason for the pictures impact these figures may look simple compared to the technical master works other artists had created before but none of those works could approach the sheer screaming agony that every fibre of demmas aisles Davin evokes at a very base level it depicts the fear of disease the prostitution could bring as well as the allure of switch encounters which would draw many to them regardless this was a fear known all too well and Picasso's day and especially in the circles he ran in in demo cells because of explores this fear and in doing so points to a new possibility for painting there are some interesting facts about Picasso's planning of this composition which can help us to further understand both how different this work is from previous paintings as well as just what it is this painting is doing to affect us first we know from his initial sketches the Picasso had originally included two other figures a sailor and a medical student both intended to be patrons of the brothel as well as momento Morrie's reminders of death which served as a warning about the dangers of such Italian PSA's this would have been a fairly traditional addition to a painting one which would allow the viewer to project themselves onto the character and understand the context of the scene through their eyes in this case as a sailor eager to visit the brothel after months at sea and a medical student who is all too aware of the risks somewhere along the line however Picasso removed these two figures I left the audience to face the brunt of the woman's confrontational stare ourselves the second choice the Picasso made was to paint each figure in a different style and perspective making them deliberately incongruent with each other this is where the influence of those African tribal masks comes into play as well as as an Iberian sculptures the work of El Greco and many many others which can all be pointed to as influences these multiple points of inspiration were further fracture the figures styles this gives each of the figures a sense of identity that is not only unique or independent from the others these decisions do something very interesting to our perceptions of the painting for one thing it stops us and makes us look and wonder why it then makes us realize that the space of the image is flatter than we might first assume which puts us closer to the figures than we initially think we are finally by removing any sort of extraneous characters from the scene which we might otherwise project our view onto Picasso has made us the viewer comfortable subject of the woman's accusatory gaze these are somewhat experimental choices which had their detractors at the time but because I was onto something perhaps painting could achieve something beyond just representing the world around it by breaking away from the need to represent the language of painting could be freed up to be used in different and sometimes shocking ways the demo sells d'Avignon would eventually come to be regarded as one of the most important paintings of the 20th century which you wouldn't know about the reaction at got most of Picasso's friends who saw the work were disgusted or bemused by its unsightly appearance unruhe Matisse who in those days was Picasso's archrival actually regarded the work as being a kind of insane false flag attack on the fledgling modern art movement designed to rob it of all credibility be that as it may not all the Picasso's friends turned their noses up at the demos aisles one in particular George Brack would see something in it that he had been looking for a new way of painting in the following years Picasso and Braque would work together to create this new way of painting based on what the castle had done and Emmas else BRAC described their relationship as being like two Mountaineers roped together each hoping the other would not follow the castle described as like being married I'm not sure which sounds scarier falling off a mountain or be married to Picasso but their working relationship would eventually bear artistic fruit in the century defining movement that is cubism cubism as a method goes something like this cube start works take their subjects break them down according to their planes and shapes and lay them out for us to see from many angles all at once in this manner we can see the subject from the front side top bottom or even from moment to moment all at once perceiving a totality of its form in a way the traditional paintings could never depict this means that in cubism there's no need to represent naturalistic since we are viewing our subjects from an already impossible position this is the essence of cubism when you look at a cubist painting can often seem to be just a bunch of squares and angles overlapping with suspiciously few cubes but when the realization that we are seeing from multiple angles is made it quickly becomes apparent what these images are conveyed common still lifes objects a figure playing guitar or descending a staircase multiple frames of perceived existence layered over each other the Cubist's took traditional subject matter and turned our view of it on its head this was inspired by what Picasso had wrought in demo cells but it also came from many changes that had taken place in society at the time as modernization took hold in those days at the start of the 20th century seeing the world from different viewpoints was becoming a common occurrence with the advent of well just about everything the world seemed like it was shrinking in some ways and expanding in others this changing pace of life made it seem like traditional painting was not quite equal to the task of capturing modern life even if that was what you wanted to do a photograph would probably have been the better option or at least faster painting was still seen as a medium suited to painting romantic scenes historical depictions or portraits of horses for rich people rather than a method suited to responding to the modern world after all what could a painting show that a camera could not capture when Picasso and Braque begun their development of cubism they were driven by these questions they saw the changing world around them and the ineffectiveness of traditional painting methods to respond to it they noticed the role of the artwork changing as mass production came into effect and the impact of ideas from outside the Western Canon of Erichs seeping it they saw the need for a new form of painterly expression and from that cubism emerged [Music] something interesting to note regarding cubism is its subject matter in relation to its position as a very modern way of painting despite its reputation as a very cutting edge avant-garde sort of painting style its subjects were traditionally typical ones still lives figures bowls of fruit household objects the kind of stuff you'd expect from a more traditional painting rather than the insanity of modern art this may have been because despite Picasso and Braque Sneed for the knew there was still a deeply held connection to the old the mold of delivery may have been changing but not the essence of wishing to convey a view of the world it's just that there are many views the Cubist movement started by Picasso and Braque would go on long after their involvement had ended it branched out into analytic and synthetic variants which would become a whole lot more complicated and foreshadow with a full abstraction that was the comb in the 20th century for Picasso however the damage had been done so to speak he was no famed for his extraordinary paintings and was world renowned as the face of cubism and father of modern painting from here on out Picasso was to become something of a superstar a household name that could stand for everything from the forward-thinking modern era to the debasement of the previously uncorrupted era of painting his reputation and his myth would be built on the impact of cubism and propel him forward into a career which would stretch across two world wars and into a cult on defining the century as the era of modern art Picasso as his poster boy all of this does not answer our question however was Picasso the greatest artist of the 20th century well I mean he wasn't the worst anyway but to answer the question properly we're going to have to continue on in Para to where we will discuss the later portions of his life his fame celebrity and politics and finally answer the question of his purported greatness [Music] so I hope you'll join me then thank you very much for listening and if you have any questions or comments please stick them down below [Music]

Channel: The Arts Hole

Views: 40,702

Keywords: picasso, pablo picasso, cubism, art, artist, artshole, painting, sculpture, modern art, contemporary art, documentary, europe, spain, france, le demoiselles d'avignon, abstraction, matisse, george braque, education, knowledge, teacher, student, what is, lifestyle, entertainment, modern art documentary, the arts hole, picasso painting, picasso drawing, picasso documentary

Id: Ki2hMaS5wlM

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 25 2019