PICASSO BLACK AND WHITE OCTOBER 5, 2012–JANUARY 23, 2013 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Teacher Resource Unit A NOTE TO TEACHERS Few artists have exerted as great an influence over subsequent generations as Pablo Picasso, who is renowned for his innovative explorations in a prodigious variety of styles and techniques. Picasso Black and White is the first exhibition in a major museum setting to explore the artist’s recurrent use of black and white across his prolific career. Organized chronologically, the exhibition traces his continued return to this deceptively simple palette in his Rose and Blue period paintings, investigations into Cubism, neoclassical and Surrealist-inspired figure paintings, forceful scenes of war, allegorical still lifes, homages to old master canvases, novel interpretations of historical subjects, and the highly charged works of his twilight years. Comprising 118 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, the exhibition is drawn from museums across Europe and the United States, as well as private collections, including those of the Picasso family. The exhibition is organized by Carmen Giménez, Stephen and Nan Swid Curator of Twentieth-Century Art, with assistance from Karole Vail, Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. This Resource Unit focuses on various aspects of Picasso’s work and provides techniques for exploring both the visual arts and other areas of the curriculum. Before bringing your class to the Guggenheim, we invite you to visit the exhibition, read the guide, and decide which aspects of the exhibition are most relevant to your students. For more information, and to schedule a visit for your class, please call 212 423 3637. For the educator, Picasso Black and White provides a perfect opportunity to invite students of all ages to join an exciting and meaningful journey into a visually rich and stimulating world. This exhibition is sponsored by Bank of America. Major support is provided by the Picasso Black and White Leadership Committee: Christina and Robert C. Baker, Chairs; Acquavella Galleries; J. Ira and Nicki Harris Foundation; The Lauder Foundation—Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Fund; Phyllis and William Mack; Stephen and Nan Swid; Patricia and George Weiss; and The Aaron I. Fleischman Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, and the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Pablo Picasso in front of The Kitchen (La cuisine, 1948) in his rue des Grands-Augustins studio, Paris. © Herbert List/Magnum Photos < ABOUT THE ARTIST > Pablo Picasso is widely considered the most influential artist of the twentieth century, and his lifelong creative invention repeatedly changed the course of visual thinking and art history. He was born in 1881 into a middle-class family in Málaga, Spain. His father, a painter, teacher, and museum curator, was a major PICASSO influence in Picasso’s formative years as an artist. In September 1891 his family settled in La Coruña, Galicia, where his father taught ARTIST ABOUT THE drawing at the Instituto Da Guarda; Picasso BLACK also studied at the school. When Picasso was still a boy his father handed him his own paint brushes, stating that his son—who AND had demonstrated a remarkable talent for blue tones, melancholy themes, and forlorn WHITE drawing and painting—was the better artist. characters, to the Rose period (1905) with a brighter, more naturalistic palette and Moving to Barcelona in 1895, Picasso enrolled scenes of circus and carnival performers in in the city’s Escuela de Bellas Artes (School intimate settings. In 1907, after he painted of Fine Arts). He began frequenting a new Les demoiselles d’Avignon, his pioneering cafe, Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), where investigations into Cubism introduced forward-thinking artists and writers gathered. a revolutionary system of painting—one There he met painters who introduced him to showing multiple views of the same object the work of the French artist Henri de Toulouse- simultaneously in deconstructed, geometric Lautrec (1864–1901). On February 1, 1900, compositions using austere, predominantly Picasso’s first exhibition opened in the cafe.1 gray tones. During World War I (1914–18) Picasso created his first work for the theater. In 1900 Picasso visited Paris for the first time, He designed the scenery and costumes for the soaking up the cafe culture and nightlife of ballet Parade, directed by the founder of the the bohemian arts capital. He settled in Paris Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929). In soon after, quickly becoming part of a circle the years after the war, Picasso’s style changed of writers, actors, musicians, and artists. again. He produced figures that harkened back Here Picasso began a lifelong process of to the classical traditions of Greece and Rome. experimentation and innovation. By 1924 Picasso was a highly successful His style developed from the Blue period artist. He became interested in the new ideas (1901–04), characterized by its predominantly developed by the Surrealist movement, which sought to fuse the world of the The postwar years for Picasso marked subconscious with reality. He collaborated a period of daring experimentation in with the Surrealists but would never become lithography and ceramics. Although he an official member of the movement. In the had made prints throughout his career, he midst of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), did not concentrate on printmaking until warplanes supporting General Francisco the late 1940s, when he developed new Franco’s Nationalist forces carried out a techniques. He brought a similar energy to devastating aerial attack on the Basque town ceramics, and his unconventional handling of Guernica. Outraged by the bombing of the medium opened up new possibilities. and the inhumanity of war, Picasso painted During the 1950s and 1960s Picasso Guernica (1937), a testament to the horrors continued to build upon earlier themes of war conveyed in black, white, and grays. and styles and never stopped exploring Guernica remains one of the most moving new materials and forms of expression. and powerful antiwar paintings in history. During his later years Picasso continued to In adopting this restricted palette, Picasso produce paintings at a prodigious pace. He was also faithful to a centuries-long Spanish devoted particular attention to reinterpreting tradition, following in the footsteps of earlier masterpieces from the history of art. He was masters whose use of the color black was now the old master of his day and found predominant in their canvases—artists such inspiration in the works of great masters of as El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de the past, including Velázquez, Jean-Auguste- Zurbarán, José de Ribera, and Francisco de Dominique Ingres, and Eugène Delacroix. Goya (who made black paintings in his old age, as did Picasso until the very end of his life). During his long career, Picasso produced roughly one hundred thousand works of art, Picasso’s subject matter was far-reaching, ranging from paintings and sculptures to ranging from historical and political subjects to ceramics, prints, and drawings. Although he is common, everyday objects. The human figure perhaps best known for his paintings, sculpture was a central theme in many of his works. His was similarly an important lifelong pursuit, numerous portraits of women include those of and his three dimensional works—in mediums his companions, who were always a source including bronze, plaster, cement, metal, and of inspiration. found objects—represent some of his most radical and personal oeuvre. More than any During World War II, while German forces other artist of his time, Picasso made viewers occupied Paris, Picasso remained in the city. and critics alike question traditional approaches Because his artistic style did not conform to creating works of art. He continued to to the Nazi ideal, he did not exhibit during work prolifically until his death in Mougins, this time. Instead he retreated to his studio France, in 1973 at the age of ninety-one. and continued to paint and sculpt. Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.2 < WOMAN IRONING > This work was created fairly early in Picasso’s glimpses into the world of the impoverished career, during what would come to be known more than one hundred years ago. Picasso as his blue period. At this time Picasso was may have felt that, as a poor artist, he was living in poverty and struggling to survive as showing his own world. He may also have an artist. As he looked at the city life around found suffering and endurance in the face him in Barcelona and Paris, he saw many of hardship to be inspiring. His good friend unhappy and poor people who were outcasts Jaime Sabartés once wrote, “Picasso believes PICASSO PICASSO from society. They became the subjects of that art emanates from sadness and pain.” 3 his art, painted in a palette of blues, greens, and grays to add to the somber mood. Art historians suggest that Picasso was more interested in the romantic agony of this IRONING WOMAN The woman depicted here is bent over her woman’s situation than in offering a social BLACK ironing. She uses a heavy, old-fashioned iron, critique, believing that her situation, which she which would require constant reheating at an faces without complaint, ennobled her. Woman AND open fireplace nearby. A bowl on the table Ironing is sometimes compared with El Greco’s holds water; beside it is a cloth for sprinkling images of martyrs, with their elongated bodies WHITE water on the fabric as she irons. She is and faces and clear outlines, in paintings Picasso agonizingly thin and hunched over with the first saw as a fourteen-year-old boy visiting the effort of placing pressure on the iron.