Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881 and died in 1973 in France. He is considered one of the world’s most famous and successful artists. Some say Picasso was destined to become an artist – his first word was “piz” (pencil)! His father was a painter and also an art professor at The School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. To teach art to his son, he had Picasso copy famous paintings over and over, and draw pictures of the human body from plaster sculptures and live models. At age 13, Picasso was already taking advanced classes at his father’s school. By age 16, Picasso moved on his own to Madrid to study at The Royal Academy of San Fernando, the country’s top art school. Soon after he arrived, Picasso stopped attending classes and became more interested in pursuing his career as an artist. Picasso was enthralled by all Madrid had to offer, especially the artwork of famous painters such as Velasquez, Goya, and El Greco. Within a few years, Picasso became a well-known and respected artist in Paris, France, which was then considered the epicenter of the art world. Picasso joined new friends, such as art collector and poet, Gertrude Stein, fellow artists, Georges Braque and Andre Breton, as well as composer, Igor Stravinsky, in many projects and long discussions about the changes in art, politics, and literature. Picasso became financially successful in his lifetime, which is unusual for many artists. Some of his most famous works of art are: Demoiselles D’Avignon, Guernica, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, Still Life with Guitar, and Three Musicians. Picasso was married twice, and he had four children. He died in 1973 at one of his homes in France. In his career, Picasso completed approximately 50,000 works of art including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, and tapestries. Picasso is known for many styles of painting, which is unusual for artists of his time, who mainly used one distinct style for their entire career. Picasso’s Artistic Phases Blue Period: Both blue in tone and mood, these paintings often depicted children and women, who were sad and gaunt and had elongated limbs, as seen in the works of El Greco. Rose Period: Picasso’s paintings in this phase were much more colorful, and often pictured circus acrobats, and clowns, called harlequins. African-Influenced Period: Picasso used African people and artifacts as his inspiration in this period. His most famous work during this phase is “Demoiselles d’Avignon”. Cubism: Picasso and his friend, artist Georges Braque, created this new category of painting in which objects are deconstructed and then depicted as various shapes and textures. This was a revolutionary style and one of Picasso’s most recognizable periods of art. Classicism and Surrealism: Classicism was influenced by more traditional, representational artists, while Surrealism was a movement Picasso adopted from other artists in the 1930’s who used symbolism to give meaning to their paintings. Guernica is an example of Picasso’s use of Classicism and Surrealism. Three Musicians Oil on Canvas 79 X 87 ¾” The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1921 Picasso painted two versions of this monumental composition in Fontainebleau, France in the summer of 1921. Fontainebleau is a chateau town just outside of Paris where Picasso had rented a villa for the summer and was using a garage as his studio. Picasso was aware he was painting in a location known for its tapestries and monumental paintings done in a grand French style and that might account for the grandness of this painting. This celebrated work, now in the New York Museum of Modern Art(the other version in Philadelphia) marked his return to high Synthetic Cubism and his use of Commedia dell’ Arte imaginary, which began in the early days in Paris. His continuing association with the refined world of ballet, through his wife and his work designing sets and costumes for Diaghilev, is evident. The Three Musicians is a large painting measuring more than 2 meters wide and high. It is painted in the Synthetic Cubist style and gives the appearance of cut paper. In this work Picasso created out of simple geometric elements, a lyrical expressive group that is loose on details but is firmly composed. The intricate, jigsaw-puzzle-like composition, the flat planes of unshaded color recall the cutout and pasted paper forms with which the style began. These overlapping shapes are at their most complex at the center of the picture, which is also where the lightest hues are concentrated, so that an aura of darkness surrounds a brighter center. Along with the frontal poses of the figures, this creates a feeling of gravity and monumentality, and gives Three Musicians a mysterious, otherworldly air. Color was at last assigned a role in the Cubist composition. Picasso moved from pastel tones to bright, primary colors. The subject of the piece is the three figures from the commedia dell’arte (old Italian comic theater) which was inspired by Picasso’s work for the ballet in years before. He had done sets for the ballets Three- Cornered Hat, Cuandro Flamenco, and Pulcinella. All were staged by Diaghilev. Pierrot and Harlequin are stock characters in the old Italian comic theater and were familiar themes in Picasso's work. This version of the painting shows three main figures, Pierrot, Harlequin and a Monk. On the left, is the masked Pierrot who's playing a clarinet wearing a blue and white suit. The Pierrot figure has been related to the poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, who was a great friend of Picasso's in the years prior to World War II, and who by the time this work was dead. At the right, you see a singing monk dressed in a black robe who holds a sheet of musical notes in his very small sort of claw-like hands or paws. The monk has been connected to another old friend of Picasso, the poet Max Jacob, who earlier this year in 1921, had in fact, entered a Benedictine monastery. And then at center, strumming a guitar is the brightly colored figure of a harlequin, in an orange and yellow diamond-pattered costume, who's often in Picasso's work as a stand-in or an alter ego for the artist himself. The three musicians and dog conjure a bygone period of bohemian life, enjoyed here by Picasso and friends. In the second version of this piece, Harlequin and Pierrot have changed places. Picasso painted these three musicians made of flat, brightly colored, abstract shapes in a shallow, boxlike room. In front of Pierrot stands a table with a pipe and other objects, while beneath him is a dog, whose belly, legs, and tail peep out behind the musician's legs. Like the boxy brown stage on which the three musicians perform, everything in this painting is made up of flat shapes. Behind each musician, the light brown floor is in a different place, extending much farther toward the left than the right. Framing the picture, the floor and the flat walls make the room lopsided, but the musicians seem steady. The music makers are in harmony. It is hard to tell where one musician starts and another stops, because the shapes that create them intersect and overlap like a collage. Pierrot, the figure in blue and white, holds a clarinet in his hands; one hand is connected to a long, thin, black arm, while the other hand lacks an arm. TheThree Musicians emphasize lively colors, angular shapes, and flat patterns. Picasso said he was delighted when "Gertrude Stein joyfully announced... that she had at last understood what... the three musicians was meant to be. It was a still life!" Commedia dell’arte- old Italian comedic improvisational, (sometimes pantomime) traveling troupe that told unscripted stories of love intrigue, clever plots to steal money, mistaken identity. The stories were broken up by interludes of acrobats, jugglers, joke tellers. Pierrot- sad clown dressed in white with a white face who usually loses his love to Harlequin or trustworthy servant who is loyal, charming and likeable Harlequin- comic servant character who steals Pierrot’s love- forebearer to modern clown, acrobatic, mischievous, talks to audience Questions for discussion What do you think the title is? The Three Musicians Measure the length of the piece with ruler. What shapes do you see? triangles, rectangles, circles, squares What objects do you see in the painting? Hands, music notes, instruments, masks, guitar, clarinet, dog’s legs and tail, pipe on table, dog’s head in corner What do you think the people are doing? Playing music, singing on stage or in front of people, a performance Why do you think the dog is there? Maybe one of the men own it, maybe they are at a friend’s house, maybe the dog wandered in….. Do you think the people are in everyday clothes or costumes? Mask on person to the right, the bright colored costume in middle, pointed hat, cape on person on right Do you think this is happy music or sad? Happy- bright costumes, dog’s influence, or sad and sober- the dark background, stage area, stiffness of characters, old building feel If the background was a bright color, how would the painting feel? Cheery, happy, like a carnival Do you like the painting? Would you like to have it in your house? How does this painting make you feel? .