Artist, interior decorator and busy mom Stacy Dalton drops by once a week to share home decorating tips, art facts and more.
A Small Homage to One of My Artistic Heroes
My friend Christine just came back from a weekend visit to Chicago, where she spent a day at one of my favorite galleries: the Art Institute. What really struck her this time around, she said, was how unbelievably prolific and multifaceted an artist Pablo Picasso was.
That got me remembering how I studied him extensively during my BFA. He really was artistically adventurous, wasn’t he? Few famous artists have taken so many chances and successfully reinvented themselves so many times.
There was his Blue Period (1901–1904), where Picasso’s paintings were pretty austere and he stuck to a palette of blue and greenish-blue. During this time, his subjects were fairly somber characters.
Then there was Picasso’s Rose Period (1905 –1907), which reflected a happier time for him. He used cheerful pinks and oranges and painted more uplifting and hopeful subject matter, like this portrait of a mother feeding her child.
Not stopping there, Picasso moved on to an African Period, where his paintings were strongly influenced by African sculpture. You can also see the beginnings of Cubism in some of these works -- the one below, for example.
Here’s where, for me, things get really interesting: Picasso’s Analytic Cubism (1909–1912) period. Analytic Cubism, which Picasso developed along with fellow artist Georges Braque, is a monochromatic style of painting where subject matter is analyzed and reduced into basic geometric shapes on a two-dimensional plane. It’s a much more abstract genre, but I think it’s fascinating!
From there, Picasso moved into Synthetic Cubism, which is a lot like Analytic Cubism, except artists use cut paper fragments instead of paints. What you end up with is a fine art collage, like Guernica, the original image featured in the print below.
If that weren’t enough, Picasso was very experimental with sculpture of all kinds. Probably the most notable (or at least the largest) work he ever did was a gigantic 50-foot-tall public sculpture in Chicago. The “Chicago Picasso,” as it’s commonly known, is one of the more famous landmarks of the city. You’ve probably walked by it if you’ve ever been in the Loop district.
And here's one of his later works that I love:
So that’s a brief sweep of Picasso’s artistic forays. His finished artwork numbers in the thousands and also includes line drawings, ceramics, murals, and even costumes and theater sets. For me, that vast legacy of creative experimentation serves as a reminder to keep pushing my own artistic boundaries. Who inspires you, artistically? Let me know!
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