Irina Pushkareva 06.24.15 Early 20th Century Figure Paintings Early 20th century was the time when artists experimented with representing objects, nature, and most importantly, the human form, in more abstract and self-expressionist style. The artists who are famous for experimenting with human forms and shapes were Henry Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Egon Schiele. Matisse used very abstract way to paint people. He depicted them in simple shapes with dark outline representing a basic human form. Pablo Picasso saw people as geometric forms in his Cubist paintings. He used rectangular shapes to convey his models' forms on a canvas. Picasso, as a very emotional person, often was affected by the political events or his lovers, which was reflected in what colors he used in his paintings. On the other hand, Egon Schiele's palette was limited to the light, soft colors, and the use of rough black contour around the figures. Schiele's goal was to show the mortality of human's body, and its fragility. Henry Matisse was a law clerk in France, who accidentally found that he had a passion for painting. His paintings are bright , soft, and pretty abstract, compared to the artists of 19th and earlier periods. Matisse is known to be the founder of the art movement called Fauvism, where the pure colors and bright light are the main subjects. He was one of the artists of earlier 20th century, who was focused on the human's figure a lot in his paintings and collages. Henry Matisse represented the body in simple, abstract shape, that captures every curve of the figure. The change in thickness of outlines around the figures adds sense of volume and perspective to the body. Matisse also loved when the figures interact with each other and the background of the painting. His use of colors that are relevant with each other, unexpected highlights and shadows around the humans' figures, that helps to emphasize certain figures and fade others to the background, bring the unity to his paintings. The great example of such artwork is "Le Bonheur de Vivre," which translates like the "Joy of Life." Henry Matisse depicts a big field in a garden, or in a forest, with a lake on the background, and with sixteen people relaxing there. The nature has been depicted in very minimalistic way. Henry Matisse did not paint each leaf, or each trunk, which made the forest look very empty. Though, the artist used pure colors such as, red, orange, and light brown, for painting different areas of forest, which added the sense of space to the painting. Most of the tree trunks are painted in bluish-green, which gives a good contrast with the warm colors of the background. Henry Matisse chose very bright yellow for the grass, which gives a sense of light to the painting. The figures, on the other hand, are painted in very soft colors such as, light pink, warm yellow, peachy white, and yellowish blue. Each body is outlined with thin red line, and it emphasizes the body's form and curves. The artist only drew out the certain body parts such as, breasts, faces, belly bottoms, and very loosely hands and feet. Even though, all the bodies are painted in the same style, the artist really focused on the individual shapes and forms. Some have longer bodies, others have longer legs. It is also very difficult to say if there are any men in the painting. As I can see, there are possibly two men, but the artist made them hard to recognize, for the bodies are in fetus position, and the details are not shown. Maybe, it was the artist's idea to name the painting the "Joy of Life," and depict more women, for he had the obsession with them, and they meant the "joy" for the artist. Nevertheless, it is one of Henry Matisse's best paintings. All the figures are represented in minimalistic way, but the details are still captured well enough to give a viewers the sense of bodies' positions, and motions. The colors of the background behind each human figure work very well with each other. The pink bodies on the foreground interact with bluish green, and deep blue grass behind them. The two women's bodies have been outlined with green and red, the colors which are also used in the leaf areas. All these little color details really connect all the details together. The bodies perfectly interact with each other and the background all together. Even though, there are a lot of them, the artist was able to bring the sense of unity to the artwork. The second well-known painter of early 20th century was Pablo Picasso. He was born in Spain in 1881, but moved to Paris to create his artworks. Picasso is the founder of famous art movement, called Cubism, where the organic shapes and realistic representation of objects and humans is not acceptable. The first artwork that was created in Cubist style was "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso in 1907. The artist depicted five naked prostitutes, on a very abstract background. The work has been done in Cubist style, so mainly, the forms are very geometrical. It seems like a strange mosaic combined of many triangular looking shapes. The background seems to be just a white cloth and brown wall. On the foreground, the artist depicted fruits such as, grapes, pears, and a piece of melon. Each of the fruit is done in very simple, abstract shape, though, it captures the form very well, and makes the objects recognizable. The main part of the painting if the five naked figures of women. Picasso was sell-known to be a big lover, and had dozen of women during his lifetime. Most of them were his models, and they inspired him. Picasso also liked to spend time with prostitutes, whom he depicted in "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." The figures are painted in Cubist style as well as the background. They are also combined of the geometric shapes, that do not look organic at all. The hands are massive, which is unnatural for women. The artist used basic 5 angular shapes for the hands, which does not depict each curve of the hand's muscles. The women's shapes are very narrow in details in overall. Picasso drew out he basic half circle shapes for breasts, unnaturally big eyes and noses. Three of the women have just a little black line for the mouth, which does not give them any emotions at all. Their eyes are staring at a viewer, but it seems like they just think about their own, and don't pay much attention on a viewer. All three faces are done int he same style using very similar face features, and it makes them look the same. Even the colors artist used are the same. Picasso did not experiment much with it as he did with the body shapes converting them in geometric abstraction. For the skin color he used very natural, body tone. The hair are black, which works well with the outlines of the figures. As Henry Matisse, Picasso used outlines on his human figure to capture the sense of shadow and movement of the body shape. Though, other two figures on left side are different. Their faces are the different color front eh body, though unlike other three figures, they seem to have the emotions. The months are painted with the simple oval shape, and the noses look like converted rectangles. The bodies are combined of the geometric figures, such as, ovals, squares, triangles, and rectangles. Even though, Pablo Picasso was a huge lover of women, who always depicted their sexuality in very unattractive way. The bodies made out of geometric looking shapes with sharp angles identifying curves, instead of the organic, smooth lines, that will capture the body details more realistically. Pablo Picasso was drawn by his feelings to the certain model, and his goal was to convey these feelings on a canvas. He tried to capture the sexuality in his own way, based on the emotional state he was getting from the particular model. Pablo Picasso was not only focusing on Cubism, Expressionism and Symbolism, but he also tried another major art movement of 20th century, Surrealism. Even though, he was against this art style, still, he was inspired by the content of the art movement. The idea was to represent our daily objects, and human figures in deformed, and sometimes even ugly way. This style gives freedom of self-expression to the artist, which Pablo Picasso could not have missed. As a person who easily get affected emotionally by the world events, and most importantly, his lovers, Pablo Picasso created couple of paintings in Surrealistic style, where he showed brighter, bolder colors, and thicker outline around the human figures. One of the most famous Surrealist paintings of Pablo Picasso was the "Girl in Front of Mirror," painted in 1932 .The artist depicts a woman who touches a big mirror which is right in front of her. The woman's body is very deformed. Unlike in the in the painting "Les mademoiselles d'Avignon," the woman's figure in this painting is created out of the very round and smooth shapes. It gives more organic and alive look to the figure. Unnaturally, Pablo Picasso painted a big stomach, making the model look pregnant. Maybe, she was pregnant at the time Picasso painted her, or it might be just the artist's exaggeration of her body's curves.