Pablo Picasso. One of THE most significant, influential, innovative artists of the 20th Century.

His prolific output includes over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theater
sets and costumes that convey myriad intellectual, political, social, and amorous messages. His
creative styles transcend realism and abstraction, Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and
Expressionism.
● Has anyone heard the name Pablo Picasso?
● What comes to mind with the name Picasso?
● What are some of his works that you may know?
● Do you have a favorite piece of art Picasso painted and/or sculpted?

Born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881, Picasso studied art briefly in Madrid in 1897, then in Barcelona
in 1899, where he became closely associated with a group of modernist poets, writers, and
artists who gathered at the café Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), including Carlos Casagemas
(1880–1901).

Today, we know most of Picasso’s work through his cubism paintings. Some of his most famous
masterpieces include:

Girl with Mandolin

The Weeping Woman

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Ladies of Avignon)

However, today we will be looking at some of Picasso’s earliest and most famous work:
Picasso’s Blue and Rose Periods.

The Blue Period of Picasso is the period between 1901 and 1904, when he painted essentially
monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other
colors. These somber works, inspired by Spain but painted in Paris, are now some of his most
popular works.

Living intermittently in Paris and Spain until 1904, his work during these years suggests feelings
of desolation and darkness inspired in part by the suicide of his friend Casagemas. Picasso’s
paintings from late 1901 to about the middle of 1904, referred to as his Blue Period, depict
themes of poverty, loneliness, and despair.
Picasso later recalled “I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas death” and it is
written by famed art historian Helene Sickel "While we might be right to retain this
psychologizing justification, we ought not lose sight of the chronology of events: Picasso was
not there when Casagemas committed suicide in Paris ... it was only in the fall that this dramatic
event emerged in his painting, with several portraits of the deceased".

With that I’d like to show the group a little video displaying some of Picasso’s most famous
paintings from his blue period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux-bGaAK9LI - Picasso’s Blue Period paintings
● Notice anything quite striking in these paintings? The gloomy faces? The somber tone?
The deep resonation of existentialism in each painting? The longing?
● Anything special about the song choice and artist performing the song?
● What is something we can take away from this period of Picasso’s life based off the
paintings and what I’ve mentioned before?

For a more in depth look at this period I’d like to show you this next video a further explanation
into Picasso’s blue period and his obsession with death and depression during this era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWYbAdqdN-M - Arts: Picasso’s Blue Period

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJCCHwexFjY&t=25s - Picasso’s Blue Period

After Picasso moved to Paris in 1904, he settled in the artist quarter Bateau-Lavoir, where he
lived among bohemian poets and writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire (gee·owm
uh·paa·luh·neh) and Max Jacob (1876–1944).
In At the Lapin Agile ( 1992.391) from 1905, Picasso directed his attention toward more pleasant
themes such as carnival performers, harlequins, and clowns. In this painting, he used his own
image for the harlequin figure and abandoned the daunting blues in favor of vivid hues, red for
example, to celebrate the lives of circus performers (categorically labeled his Rose Period).

Picasso's Rose Period paintings still show resignation, but no mourning and while his Blue
Period paintings seem to serve to express Picasso's sorrow, his Rose Period style begins to
lead a life of its own, in the artistic spirit of his time: it's not the subject and its content that
matters most, but the painting itself. Picasso goes on to experiment in a style that renders his
subjects anonymous, resulting in an artistic matrix of a person, rather than a person.
See for instance Seated Female Nude (1905).

The type of person is recognizable, not the person itself. The subject is characterized, not
portrayed. This, although a step in the direction of abstract art, is not the most important feature
of Picasso's Rose Period.

Now, I’d like for the group to examine two particular paintings during these periods that have
become some of his most famous before his exploration with Cubism.
These paintings are:

The Old Guitarist (Blue Period)

The Old Guitarist was painted in 1903, just after the suicide death of Picasso's close friend,
Casagemas. During this time, the artist was sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden and
painted many canvases depicting the miseries of the poor, the ill, and those cast out of society.

This bent and sightless man holds close to him a large, round guitar. Its brown body represents
the painting's only shift in color. Both physically and symbolically, the instrument fills the space
around the solitary figure, who seems oblivious to his blindness and poverty as he plays. At the
time the painting was made, literature of the Symbolist movement included blind characters who
possessed powers of inner vision. The thin, skeleton-like figure of the blind musician also has
roots in art from Picasso's native country, Spain. The old man's elongated limbs and cramped,
angular posture recall the figures of the great 16th-century artist El Greco.
● How does this painting make you feel?
● What is the significance of this painting?
● Do you see the ghostly figure of a head behind this man’s neck? What do you think it
represents?
● What song do you think he’s playing? What song(s) do you listen to when you’re sad? A
song from any time period.
Boy with Pipe (Rose Period)

Garçon à la pipe was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period,
soon after he settled in the Montmartre section of Paris, France. The oil on canvas painting
depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand and wearing a garland or wreath of flowers.

Early preparations of this work involved positioning the boy in all types of poses that involved
standing, sitting or leaning against the wall. After much repositioning of the model, Picasso
decided to go with the boy sitting down. Next was how to position the arm, where much time
was also spent on the height and angle.

What appears to be fact from comments made from a variety of sources is that the boy was a
model in his teen years who hung around Picasso's studio and volunteered to pose for the oil
work. Picasso's own comments about the boy were that he was one of the:

“local types, actors, ladies, gentlemen, delinquents... He stayed there, sometimes the whole
day. He watched me work. He loved that.”

From this comment, suppositions can be made. The first is that Picasso did not want people to
know who the boy is, and the second is Picasso did not really know the boy.

● How does this painting make you feel?

● What is the significance of this painting?
● What do you think he’s smoking in the pipe?
● Could the position of the flowers behind the boy and the wreath on his head represent
an angel or perhaps Jesus Christ? Becoming anew with this Rose Period?