Three Musicians, 1921 Pablo Picasso

Keywords: cubism, collage, line, shape, color Activity: Fractured Portrait Collage

Key Words Defined: • Cubism – A Movement in art where artists explored new ways of presenting reality, taking everyday objects and viewing them from different angles and perspectives. The pieces of art characteristically portrayed dismantled geometric forms. • Collage – work of art created by gluing bits of paper, fabric, scraps, photographs or other materials to a flat surface. • Line – an element of art; a continuous path of a point as it moves across a surface. A line can vary in length, width, direction, curvature or color. • Shape – an element of art. The outline, edge or flat surface of a form as a circle or a square. • Color - an element of art. The hue, value and intensity of an object. The primary colors are red, blue and yellow; every color except white can be created from various blending of these three colors

Meet the Artist: • Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. • His father was an artist who taught at a local university and he encouraged Pablo at an early age to pursue his artistic talents. • At the age of 11, Pablo and was sent to art. • Picasso’s artworks changed significantly through his career and he created hundreds of paintings and sculptures. • He married and had 4 children. When they were younger, he was a fantastically fun dad. He would draw on tablecloths, did magic tricks and would prepare birthday dinner celebrations made up entirely of chocolate. • He became most well known for his Cubist paintings. Cubism emphasized line, shape and color. It was a modern art style that is not realistic in nature, but based geometric shapes. It started out with neutral colors, but eventually became a very colorful style. • Picasso was very outspoken, opinionated and eccentric. He never threw anything out, hated the telephone, and refused to dust his studio. He loved keeping an odd assortment of pets, including goats, reptiles, a monkey and always some Afghan Hounds. He loved any publicity and made sure he was always reading something about himself. • He was a prolific painter, and even in his 90th year, he painted 200 paintings. He was still working on the day he died, at 92, of heart failure.

Possible Questions: o Describe the lines. What shapes do they make? o Describe the colors, are they mainly warm or cool colors. Or, are they balanced? o What do you see in the painting? Can you pick out the 3 musicians? o What things do you recognize in this painting? o Why do you think Picasso painted this painting? What do you think inspired it? o What title would you give this painting? o What grade would you give it?

Activity: Portrait Collage Materials Needed: Drawing Paper Scissors Black Markers Colored Markers Glue Colored Construction Paper (scraps)

Project Description: 1. Give each student a piece of white drawing paper and have scissors, glue and colored construction paper available at each work station. 2. Label back of paper with student name. 3. Draw a facial shape (oval, triangle, square) on the white paper filling up most of the space. 4. Start cutting out shapes in cubist forms to use for eyes, eyebrows, lashes. Cheeks, nose, lips, chin on the colored construction paper. 5. Place the shapes on the outlined face in varying positions to make it the most interesting portrait in “Picasso Style”. Glue the pieces onto the outlined face on the white paper. 6. Color in the empty facial spaces with the colored markers (optional). 7. Use the black markers to make eyelashes, expression lines, and even to outline the pieces of paper representing the facial parts in order to accentuate them. 8. Glue Parent Letter on the back of the “Masterpiece” 9. Sign off on the “Lesson Complete” Page of the Binder. 10. Display Finished pieces as desired by your teacher.