Picasso, the master of 20th century art
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Fakhrul Islam
PABLO Ruiz Picasso is indisputably a brilliant name in the field of 20th century art and painting. He is the first one who introduced a realistic strain in painting and gave more stress on the abstract than merely its face value. Picasso was born and brought up in such a period when a tremendous change had happened in every sphere of human life.
Men started to pay more attention to culture and literature, but far from being romantic in its literal sense, they were very prone to seeing everything realistically. They wanted to find a realistic touch even in the aesthetic practice like art and painting. And Picasso had successfully managed to fulfil the expectation of his contemporary people. His painting includes collage, cubism and pragmatic presentation in a most congenial canvas.
This great artist, Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on 25 October 1881 in a city of the Mediterranean south coast, Malaga in Spain. His father, Don Jose Ruiz Blasco was a teacher of art school and also served for a museum as its curator. But Picasso's birth was itself a matter of great surprise. When he was born, the milk nurse left him in a corner of the house presuming him to be dead. Luckily his uncle saw him raising his little hand for a moment and called the family physician.
Then the doctor came and gave him a new life by hearty attendance. From his very childhood Pablo had a keen interest in painting. It is said that the word he first uttered in his infancy was 'pencil'. He took his first lesson in painting from his father, who fostered the son's interest in painting so generously. As a student he didn't show much talent, but in his childhood-pictures a sense of liveliness is clearly revealed.
When Pablo was only fourteen, their family moved to Barcelona from Malaga city and his father joined in an art college as a professor. Picasso got admitted in his father's institute and went on practicing painting with unbroken attention. Within a very short time he attained enormous fame as a junior artist. Then there was the tradition of arranging building in Spain in which Picasso took much interest. Actually he loved to see it, not for its excitement and turmoil but the life in the fight encouraged him very much. In any of his paintings we see the bulls fighting in furious vigour. After finishing three- year course in Barcelona, Pablo got admitted in the Royal Academy of Madrid. There he felt attracted to the expressionistic art of Van Gogh. Here in the academy he used to read book on the experience of his predecessors at intervals of painting. His painting was first exhibited in Paris in 1900 under the title 'The moulin de la Galette'. His preliminary phase of painting extends from 1901 to 1904. This is called the 'blue period' as most of the paintings he made in this period were suffused with deep blue colour. For him, blue is the symbol of gloom and melancholy.
This time Pablo led a bohemian life settling nowhere for a single month. After some days he came back to Madrid and got in touch with a few young artists and he managed to publish a tabloid on arts and painting called the 'Young Art'. Until he had returned again to Paris he made somesuccessful shows on his works most of which was drawn by pastel. Suddenly a great change occurred in his painting as well as in personal life. He fell in love with a pretty maiden, the colour of the paintings also changed and now we see widespread use of rose on his canvas marking an introduction of the next phase their 'Pink Period'. 'The three dancers' is the greatest production of this period.
In 1907 Pablo inclined to cubism strain of painting. He devised a new method of painting basing on geometrical theory. Cubism is actually a modern strain of expressionism. His friend Brac assisted him in founding an institution for the cubists called the 'Cubist Collage'. 'Still life with chain Caning' is the most popular piece of painting by Picasso in the third phase of cubism.
The second woman came in his life in 1927 named Mary Theresa Walter. She acted as his model and at one stage Picasso felt that he had much to receive from Mary for paintings. She was extermely beautiful and all the lusty figures he made here on her. But the romance between them didn't last long probably because Picasso considered her nothing more than an instrument of painting. By now the Second World War broke out but Picasso believed in scientific communism. He felt that only social equality could give the real meaning to his paintings. Collage was another representative aspect of his career. He followed Japanese tradition in this respect. Picasso attained a good sum of money by selling his paintings all over the world. Sorry to say, none of the artists had ever gained so tremendous popularity in their life time.
Despite being a true Bohemian, Picasso had never suffered from intellectual stagnancy and all the time he was engaged in painting. On 8 April, 1973 Pablo Ruiz Picasso breathed his last causing irreparable vacuum in art and painting.
Before his death Picasso willed all his paintings to the national museum of Barcelona.
Fakhrul Islam is a Ph D fellow at University of Dhaka. May be reached at [email protected]
PABLO Ruiz Picasso is indisputably a brilliant name in the field of 20th century art and painting. He is the first one who introduced a realistic strain in painting and gave more stress on the abstract than merely its face value. Picasso was born and brought up in such a period when a tremendous change had happened in every sphere of human life.
Men started to pay more attention to culture and literature, but far from being romantic in its literal sense, they were very prone to seeing everything realistically. They wanted to find a realistic touch even in the aesthetic practice like art and painting. And Picasso had successfully managed to fulfil the expectation of his contemporary people. His painting includes collage, cubism and pragmatic presentation in a most congenial canvas.
This great artist, Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on 25 October 1881 in a city of the Mediterranean south coast, Malaga in Spain. His father, Don Jose Ruiz Blasco was a teacher of art school and also served for a museum as its curator. But Picasso's birth was itself a matter of great surprise. When he was born, the milk nurse left him in a corner of the house presuming him to be dead. Luckily his uncle saw him raising his little hand for a moment and called the family physician.
Then the doctor came and gave him a new life by hearty attendance. From his very childhood Pablo had a keen interest in painting. It is said that the word he first uttered in his infancy was 'pencil'. He took his first lesson in painting from his father, who fostered the son's interest in painting so generously. As a student he didn't show much talent, but in his childhood-pictures a sense of liveliness is clearly revealed.
When Pablo was only fourteen, their family moved to Barcelona from Malaga city and his father joined in an art college as a professor. Picasso got admitted in his father's institute and went on practicing painting with unbroken attention. Within a very short time he attained enormous fame as a junior artist. Then there was the tradition of arranging building in Spain in which Picasso took much interest. Actually he loved to see it, not for its excitement and turmoil but the life in the fight encouraged him very much. In any of his paintings we see the bulls fighting in furious vigour. After finishing three- year course in Barcelona, Pablo got admitted in the Royal Academy of Madrid. There he felt attracted to the expressionistic art of Van Gogh. Here in the academy he used to read book on the experience of his predecessors at intervals of painting. His painting was first exhibited in Paris in 1900 under the title 'The moulin de la Galette'. His preliminary phase of painting extends from 1901 to 1904. This is called the 'blue period' as most of the paintings he made in this period were suffused with deep blue colour. For him, blue is the symbol of gloom and melancholy.
This time Pablo led a bohemian life settling nowhere for a single month. After some days he came back to Madrid and got in touch with a few young artists and he managed to publish a tabloid on arts and painting called the 'Young Art'. Until he had returned again to Paris he made somesuccessful shows on his works most of which was drawn by pastel. Suddenly a great change occurred in his painting as well as in personal life. He fell in love with a pretty maiden, the colour of the paintings also changed and now we see widespread use of rose on his canvas marking an introduction of the next phase their 'Pink Period'. 'The three dancers' is the greatest production of this period.
In 1907 Pablo inclined to cubism strain of painting. He devised a new method of painting basing on geometrical theory. Cubism is actually a modern strain of expressionism. His friend Brac assisted him in founding an institution for the cubists called the 'Cubist Collage'. 'Still life with chain Caning' is the most popular piece of painting by Picasso in the third phase of cubism.
The second woman came in his life in 1927 named Mary Theresa Walter. She acted as his model and at one stage Picasso felt that he had much to receive from Mary for paintings. She was extermely beautiful and all the lusty figures he made here on her. But the romance between them didn't last long probably because Picasso considered her nothing more than an instrument of painting. By now the Second World War broke out but Picasso believed in scientific communism. He felt that only social equality could give the real meaning to his paintings. Collage was another representative aspect of his career. He followed Japanese tradition in this respect. Picasso attained a good sum of money by selling his paintings all over the world. Sorry to say, none of the artists had ever gained so tremendous popularity in their life time.
Despite being a true Bohemian, Picasso had never suffered from intellectual stagnancy and all the time he was engaged in painting. On 8 April, 1973 Pablo Ruiz Picasso breathed his last causing irreparable vacuum in art and painting.
Before his death Picasso willed all his paintings to the national museum of Barcelona.
Fakhrul Islam is a Ph D fellow at University of Dhaka. May be reached at [email protected]