Picasso

I have pretty much ignored the work of Pablo Picasso all my life with the exception of this piece:

Three Musicians 1921

And I would have to say that my attraction, if you will, to this piece was only because I associated it with this pastiche of Picasso's work on the cover of one of my all-time favorite albums:

Other than that, as I said, I ignored his work thinking at most that it was too angular to be appealing. Now that I have been reading and watching some documentary programs about Picasso with the boys, I am seeing his art in a new light. First of all, I am ashamed to say, I really had no idea of where Picasso lay on a historical time line. I assumed, because of the modern look of his art that he was a painter exclusively in the mid 20th century. I was shocked and amazed then to find out that he was in his blue period in the early 1900's

The Old Guitar Player 1903

and Analytic Cubism was his direction by 1908 or so.

Le Guitariste 1910

Now that was a huge eye-opener for me. I mean, in the early 1900's people dressed like this:

my great-grandparents 1914

And drove cars like this:


and yet Picasso was all this:

Torse de Femme 1908


Wow. Wild stuff. Whether or not you like what he did, you have to appreciate the vision. I asked the boys what they thought of the different styles of Picasso's work and at first they only liked the things he did as a teenager, his very realistic looking pieces. Then as we discussed which we would actually want to look at hanging on our walls day in and out, they decided that the more colorful, unique ones were the ones which were more appealing to them. In particular they found great humor in this piece:

Maya in a Sailor Suit 1938

But they also claimed that it looked like something they could do themselves. Maybe.

Also impressive was the size of Guernica, painted in1937. Twelve feet high, 25 feet long. Big.

After our reading and watching, we visited Mr Picassohead and made some sweet Picasso stylings of our own. My favorite of the bunch was Charlie's attempt, entitled President Frankenjupern.

Then we decided to spend a relaxing afternoon painting some Picasso inspired pieces. I'll save those for unveiling in a later post.

Love this home educating thing. I am learning so much!