blue period. Blue and pink period in the work of P

Laymen often throw remarks towards avant-garde artists that they don’t know how to draw, so they depict cubes and squares. Picasso can serve as an illustration of the falsity and primitiveness of such a statement. From a young age, he was able to reflect nature on paper with maximum resemblance to the original. The talent, which successfully got into the creative environment from birth (the father of the brightest figure in painting of the 20th century was a drawing teacher and decorator), developed at lightning speed. The boy began to draw almost before he could speak...

"Blue" period

The "Blue Period" is perhaps the first stage in the work of Picasso, in relation to which one can speak of the individuality of the master, despite the still sounding notes of influences. The first creative takeoff was provoked by a long depression: in February 1901 in Madrid, Picasso learned about the death of his close friend Carlos Casagemas. On May 5, 1901, the artist came to Paris for the second time in his life, where everything reminded him of Casagemas, with whom he had recently discovered the French capital. Pablo settled in the room where Carlos spent his last days, started an affair with Germain, because of which a friend committed suicide, communicated with the same circle of people. One can imagine what a complex knot the bitterness of loss, a sense of guilt, a sense of the proximity of death were woven into for him ... All this largely served as the "garbage" from which the "blue period" grew. Later, Picasso said: "I plunged into blue when I realized that Casagemas was dead" ...

"Pink" period

The "Pink Period" was relatively short (from the autumn of 1904 to the end of 1906) and not entirely homogeneous. However, a large number of paintings are marked by light colors, the appearance of pearl gray, ocher and pink-red tones; new themes appear and become dominant - actors, acrobats, athletes. The Circus Medrano, located at the foot of the Montmartre hill, certainly provided a lot of material for the artist. Theatricality in its many manifestations (costumes, accentuated gestures), a variety of types of people, beautiful and ugly, young and adults, seemed to return the artist to the world of several transformed, but real forms, volumes, spaces; the images were filled with life again, in contrast to the characters of the "blue period" ...

"African" period

The first work that turned Picasso's brushes towards a new figurativeness was the portrait of Gertrude Stein in 1906. After rewriting it about 80 times, the artist despaired of translating the writer into a classical style. The artist was clearly ripe for a new creative period, and following nature ceased to interest him. This canvas can be considered the first step towards the deformation of the form.

In 1907, Picasso first encountered archaic African art at an ethnographic exhibition at the Trocadero Museum. Primitive idols, figurines and masks, where the generalized form was freed from the flickering of details, embodied the mighty forces of nature, from which primitive man did not distance himself. The ideology of Picasso, who invariably put art above all else, coincided with the powerful message embedded in these images: for ancient people, art did not serve to decorate everyday life, it was witchcraft that tamed incomprehensible and hostile spirits that controlled earthly life full of danger...

Cubism

Before cubism in European art, one of the main problems has always been the problem of lifelikeness. For several centuries, art has evolved without questioning this task. Even the Impressionists, who opened a new chapter in the history of painting devoted to light, fixing a fleeting impression, also solved the question: how to capture this world on canvas.

The impetus for the development of a new language of art, perhaps, was the question: why paint? By the beginning of the XX century. the basics of "correct" drawing could be taught to almost anyone. Photography was actively developing, and it became clear that images of a fixation, technical plan would become her domain. The question arose before the artists: how can art remain alive and relevant in a world where pictorial images are becoming more accessible and more easily replicated? Picasso's answer is extremely simple: in the arsenal of painting there are only its own specific means - the plane of the canvas, line, color, light, and it is absolutely not necessary to put them at the service of nature. The external world only gives impetus to the expression of the individuality of the creator. The rejection of a plausible imitation of the objective world opened up incredibly wide opportunities for artists. This process proceeded in several directions. In the field of "liberation" of color, Matisse, perhaps, was in the lead, and Braque and Picasso - the founders of cubism - were more interested in form ...

"Classic" period

The 1910s turned out to be quite difficult for Picasso. In 1911, a story surfaced with the purchase and storage of figurines stolen from the Louvre, which demonstrated to Picasso the limitations of his own moral, human strength: he turned out to be unable to directly resist the pressure of power, and to maintain loyalty to friendship (during the first interrogation, he tried to renounce even the very fact acquaintance with Appolinaire, "thanks" to whom he was involved in this unpleasant incident). In 1914, the First World War began and it turned out that Picasso was not ready to fight for France, which became his second home. This also separated him from many friends. Marcel Humbert died in 1915...

Surrealism

The division of creativity into periods is a standard way to squeeze art into frames and sort it out. In the case of Pablo Picasso, an artist without style or, rather, an artist of many styles, this approach is conventional, but traditionally applied. The period of Picasso's proximity to surrealism chronologically fits into the framework of 1925 - 1932. As a rule, a certain Muse ruled over each stylistic stage in the artist's work. Being married to the ex-ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who longed to “recognize herself on the canvases”, Picasso turned from cubism invented by him together with Georges Braque to neoclassicism.

When did a young blonde enter the artist's life

Acrobat and young Harlequin 1905

The "blue" and "pink" periods in the work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso are the time of the formation of the artist's individual style. At this time, there is a departure from impressionism, the inheritance of the styles of Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and other famous artists.

"Blue" period (1901-1904)

Self-portrait. 1901

It got its name because of the general tonality of the paintings, made in blue and blue colors, united by the mood of despair and loneliness. One of the first works of this period were "Self-Portrait" (1901) and "Absinthe Drinker" (1901). Most of the heroes of Picasso's paintings are representatives of the lower strata of society, destitute, sick or vicious people. Among the later "blue" works, it is worth noting the paintings "Head of a Woman" (1902-1903), "Breakfast of a Blind Man" (1903), "An Old Jew with a Boy" (1903), "Ironer" (1904). From an aesthetic point of view, it is important to move to new ways of depicting, excluding unnecessary details from the composition, and a number of other decisions that allow the viewer to focus on the emotions caused by the picture. At the same time, these works by Picasso cannot be fully considered original, because. they partially use motifs and techniques characteristic of Spanish painting. The formation of such an emotional mood of the paintings was strongly influenced by life realities. The beginning of the "blue" period is associated with the suicide of a close friend of the artist Carlos Casagemas in 1901. The proximity of death, loneliness, forced return to Barcelona in 1903 due to lack of funds influenced the depressiveness of the paintings.

"Girl on the ball" - the balance between life and death

Girl on the Ball. 1905

This painting, painted in 1905, is a characteristic work of the transitional period. The time when pain, despair and suffering in the artist's paintings are gradually disappearing, they are replaced by an interest in living human joys, embodied by circus performers and artists. The content of this work, built on contrasts (movement and static, girl and athlete, lightness and heaviness, etc.), fully corresponds to the symbolism of the transition between the bitterness of death and the joys of life.

"Pink" period (1904 - 1906)

A gradual transition to the “pink” period in his work was outlined as early as 1904, when positive changes began to occur in the artist’s life: moving to the seething center of avant-garde life - to the hostel of artists in Montmartre, falling in love with Fernande Olivier, meeting many interesting people, among whom were Matisse and Gertrude Stein. The main theme of the works of this period, made in pink, red, pearl tones, are the comedians of the Medrano circus. The paintings are distinguished by a variety of subjects, dynamics and movement. At the same time, the artist continues to develop an individual style, formed back in the "blue" period. The works “Acrobat and Young Harlequin” (1905), “Family of Comedians” (1905), “Jester” (1905), etc. belong to this time. At the end of the “pink” period, images inspired by ancient myths appear in Picasso’s paintings: “Girl with a goat "(1906)," A boy leading a horse "(1906), there is an interest in the image of the nude" Combing "(1906), A naked boy (1906).

There is hardly a person on the planet who is not familiar with the name Pablo Picasso. The founder of cubism and an artist of many styles in the 20th century influenced the fine arts not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

Artist Pablo Picasso: childhood and years of study

One of the brightest was born in Malaga, in a house on Merced Square, in 1881, on October 25th. Now there is a museum and fund named after P. Picasso. Following the Spanish tradition at baptism, the parents gave the boy a rather long name, which is an alternation of the names of saints and the closest and most revered relatives in the family. Ultimately, he is known by his very first and last. Pablo decided to take his mother's surname, considering his father's too simple. The boy's talent and craving for drawing manifested itself from early childhood. The first and very valuable lessons were given to him by his father, who was also an artist. His name was Jose Ruiz. He painted his first serious picture at the age of eight - "Picador". We can safely say that it was with her that the work of Pablo Picasso began. The father of the future artist received a job offer as a teacher in La Coruña in 1891, and soon the family moved to northern Spain. In the same place, Pablo studied at the local art school for a year. Then the family moved to one of the most beautiful cities - Barcelona. Young Picasso was 14 years old at the time, and he was too young to study at La Lonja (School of Fine Arts). However, the father was able to ensure that he was admitted to the entrance exams on a competitive basis, with which he coped brilliantly. After another four years, his parents decided to enroll him in the best advanced art school at that time - "San Fernando" in Madrid. Studying at the academy quickly bored the young talent; in its classical canons and rules, he was cramped and even bored. Therefore, he devoted more time to the Prado Museum and the study of its collections, and a year later he returned to Barcelona. The early period of his work includes paintings painted in 1986: “Self-portrait” by Picasso, “First Communion” (it depicts the artist’s sister Lola), “Portrait of a Mother” (pictured below).

During his stay in Madrid, he first made where he studied all the museums and the paintings of the greatest masters. Subsequently, he would come to this center of world art several times, and in 1904 he would finally move.

"Blue" period

This time period can be seen as precisely at this time, his individuality, still subject to extraneous influence, begins to appear in the work of Picasso. A well-known fact: the talent of creative natures manifests itself as brightly as possible in difficult life situations. This is exactly what happened to Pablo Picasso, whose works are now known to the whole world. The takeoff was instigated and came after a long depression caused by the death of close friend Carlos Casagemas. In 1901, at the exhibition organized by Vollard, 64 works by the artist were presented, but at that time they were still full of sensuality and brightness, the influence of the Impressionists was clearly felt. The “blue” period of his work gradually entered into its legal rights, manifesting itself with rigid contours of figures and the loss of three-dimensionality of the image, moving away from the classical laws of artistic perspective. The palette of colors on his canvases is becoming more and more monotonous, the emphasis is on blue. The beginning of the period can be considered "Portrait of Jaime Sabartes" and Picasso's self-portrait, written in 1901.

Paintings of the "blue" period

The key words during this period for the master were such words as loneliness, fear, guilt, pain. In 1902, he will return to Barcelona again, but he will not be able to stay there. The tense situation in the capital of Catalonia, poverty on all sides and social injustice result in popular unrest, which gradually engulfed not only all of Spain, but also Europe. Probably, this state of affairs had an impact on the artist, who this year is working fruitfully and extremely hard. Masterpieces of the “blue” period are created in the Motherland: “Two sisters (Date)”, “An old Jew with a boy”, “Tragedy” (photo of the canvas above), “Life”, where the image of the deceased Casagemas once again appears. In 1901, the painting "The Absinthe Drinker" was also painted. It traces the influence of the popular at that time passion for "vicious" characters, characteristic of French art. The theme of absinthe sounds in many paintings. The work of Picasso, among other things, is full of drama. The hypertrophied hand of a woman, with which she seems to be trying to defend herself, catches the eye especially clearly. At present, The Absinthe Drinker is stored in the Hermitage, having got there from a private and very impressive collection of Picasso's works (51 works) by S. I. Shchukin after the revolution.

As soon as the opportunity arises to go again, he decides to use it without hesitation and leaves Spain in the spring of 1904. It is there that he will encounter new interests, sensations and impressions, which will give rise to a new stage in his work.

"Pink" period

In the work of Picasso, this stage lasted for a relatively long time - from 1904 (autumn) until the end of 1906 - and was not entirely homogeneous. Most of the paintings of the period are marked by a light range of colors, the appearance of ocher, pearl-gray, red-pink tones. Characteristic is the appearance and subsequent dominance of new themes for the artist's work - actors, circus performers and acrobats, athletes. Of course, the vast majority of the material was provided to him by the Medrano circus, which in those years was located at the foot of Montmartre. The bright theatrical setting, costumes, behavior, variety of characters seemed to have returned P. Picasso to the world, albeit transformed, but real forms and volumes, natural space. The images in his paintings again became sensual and filled with life, brightness, as opposed to the characters of the "blue" stage of creativity.

Pablo Picasso: works of the "pink" period

The paintings that marked the beginning of a new period were first exhibited at the end of the winter of 1905 in the Serurier Gallery - these are "Seated Nude" and "Actor". One of the recognized masterpieces of the "pink" period is "The Family of Comedians" (pictured above). The canvas has impressive dimensions - in height and width of more than two meters. The figures of circus performers are depicted against the blue sky, it is generally accepted that the harlequin on the right side is Picasso himself. All the characters are static, and there is no inner closeness between them, everyone was bound by inner loneliness - the theme of the entire "pink" period. In addition, the following works by Pablo Picasso are worth noting: “Woman in a Shirt”, “Toilet”, “Boy Leading a Horse”, “Acrobats. Mother and son”, “Girl with a goat”. All of them demonstrate to the viewer the beauty and serenity rare for the artist's paintings. A new impetus to creativity happened at the end of 1906, when Picasso traveled around Spain and ended up in a small village in the Pyrenees.

African period of creativity

P. Picasso first encountered archaic African art at the thematic exhibition of the Trocadero Museum. He was impressed by pagan idols of primitive form, exotic masks and figurines, embodying the great power of nature and distanced from the smallest details. The artist's ideology coincided with this powerful message, and as a result, he began to simplify his characters, making them look like stone idols, monumental and sharp. However, the first work in the direction of this style appeared back in 1906 - this is a portrait of the work of Pablo Picasso of the writer. He rewrote the picture 80 times and already completely lost faith in the possibility of embodying her image in a classical style. This moment can rightfully be called transitional from following nature to deformation of the form. It is enough to look at such canvases as "Naked Woman", "Dance with Veils", "Dryad", "Friendship", "Bust of a Sailor", "Self-Portrait".

But perhaps the most striking example of the African stage of Picasso's work is the painting "Avignon Girls" (pictured above), on which the master worked for about a year. She crowned this stage of the artist's career and largely determined the fate of art in general. For the first time, the canvas saw the light only thirty years after it was written and became an open door to the world of the avant-garde. The bohemian circle of Paris literally split into two camps: “for” and “against”. The painting is currently in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Cubism in the work of Picasso

The problem of the uniqueness and accuracy of the image remained in first place in European fine art until the moment when cubism burst into it. The impetus for its development is considered by many to be the question that arose among artists: “Why paint?” At the beginning of the 20th century, almost anyone could be taught a reliable image of what you see, and photography was literally on the heels, which threatened to completely and completely displace everything else. Visual images become not only believable, but also accessible, easily replicated. Cubism of Pablo Picasso in this case reflects the individuality of the creator, refusing a plausible image of the outside world and opening up completely new possibilities, the boundaries of perception.

Early works include: “Pot, glass and book”, “Bathing”, “Bouquet of flowers in a gray jug”, “Bread and fruit bowl on the table”, etc. The canvases clearly show how the artist’s style changes and acquires increasingly abstract features towards the end of the period (1918-1919). For example, "Harlequin", "Three Musicians", "Still Life with Guitar" (pictured above). Associating the viewers of the master's work with abstractionism did not suit Picasso at all, the very emotional message of the paintings, their hidden meaning, was important to him. In the end, the style of cubism created by him himself gradually ceased to inspire and interest the artist, opening the way for new trends in creativity.

classical period

The second decade of the 20th century was quite difficult for Picasso. So, 1911 was marked by a story with stolen figurines from the Louvre, which did not put the artist in the best light. In 1914, it turned out that, even after living in the country for so many years, Picasso was not ready to fight for France in the First World War, which divorced him from many friends. And the following year, his beloved Marcel Humbert died.

The return of a more realistic Pablo Picasso in his work, whose works were again filled with readability, figurativeness and artistic logic, was also influenced by many external factors. Including a trip to Rome, where he was imbued with ancient art, as well as communication with the Diaghilev ballet troupe and acquaintance with the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who soon became the second wife of the artist. The beginning of a new period can be considered her portrait of 1917, which in some way was of an experimental nature. The Russian ballet of Pablo Picasso not only inspired the creation of new masterpieces, but also gave his beloved and long-awaited son. The most famous works of the period: Olga Khokhlova (pictured above), Pierrot, Still Life with Jug and Apples, Sleeping Peasants, Mother and Child, Women Running on the Beach, Three Graces .

Surrealism

The division of creativity is nothing but the desire to put it on the shelves and squeeze it into a certain (stylistic, temporal) framework. However, to the work of Pablo Picasso, who is adorned by the best museums and galleries in the world, such an approach can be called very conditional. If you follow the chronology, then the period when the artist was close to surrealism falls on 1925-1932. It is not at all surprising that the muse visited the master of the brush at every stage of his work, and when O. Khokhlova wished to recognize herself on his canvases, he turned to neoclassicism. However, creative people are fickle, and soon the young and very beautiful Maria Teresa Walter, who at the time of their acquaintance was only 17 years old, entered the life of Picasso. She was destined for the role of a mistress, and in 1930 the artist bought a castle in Normandy, which became her home, and his workshop. Maria Teresa was a faithful companion, steadfastly enduring the creative and loving throwing of the creator, maintaining friendly correspondence until the death of Pablo Picasso. Works of the Surrealist period: "Dance", "Woman in an armchair" (pictured below), "Bather", "Nude on the beach", "Dream", etc.

World War II period

Sympathy for Picasso during the hostilities in Spain in 1937 belonged to the Republicans. When Italian and German aircraft destroyed Guernica, the political and cultural center of the Basques, in the same year, Pablo Picasso depicted the city in ruins on a huge canvas of the same name in just two months. He was literally seized with horror from the threat that hung over the whole of Europe, which could not but affect his work. Emotions were not expressed directly, but embodied in the tone, its gloom, bitterness and sarcasm.

After the wars died down, and the world came to a relative balance, restoring everything that had been destroyed, Picasso's work also acquired happier and brighter colors. His canvases, written in 1945-1955, have a Mediterranean flavor, are very atmospheric and partly idealistic. At the same time, he began to work with ceramics, creating many decorative jugs, dishes, plates, figurines (the photo is presented above). The works that were created in the last 15 years of his life are very uneven in style and quality.

One of the greatest artists of the twentieth century - Pablo Picasso - died at the age of 91 in his villa in France. He was buried near the Vovenart castle that belonged to him.

“I plunged into blue when I realized that Casajemas was dead,” Picasso later admitted. “The period from 1901 to 1904 in the work of Picasso is usually called the “blue” period, since most of the paintings of this time are painted in a cold blue-green scale, exacerbating the mood of fatigue and tragic poverty. What was later called the "blue" period was multiplied by images of sad scenes, paintings full of deep melancholy. At first glance, all this is incompatible with the enormous vitality of the artist himself. But remembering the self-portraits of a young man with huge sad eyes, we understand that the paintings of the "blue" period convey the emotions that owned the artist at that time. A personal tragedy sharpened his perception of the life and grief of suffering and disadvantaged people.

It is paradoxical, but true: the injustice of the life order is keenly felt not only by those who have experienced the yoke of life's hardships since childhood, or even worse - the dislike of loved ones, but also by quite prosperous people. Picasso is a prime example of this. His mother adored Pablo, and this love became an impenetrable armor for him until his death. The father, who constantly experienced financial difficulties, knew how to help his son with all his might, although he sometimes moved in a completely different direction than don Jose indicated. The beloved and prosperous young man did not become an egocentric, although the atmosphere of the decadent culture in which he was formed in Barcelona, ​​it would seem, contributed to this. On the contrary, he felt with great force the social disorder, the huge gulf between the poor and the rich, the injustice of the structure of society, its inhumanity - in a word, everything that led to the revolutions and wars of the 20th century.

“Let's turn to one of the central works of Picasso of that time - to the painting “The Old Beggar with a Boy”, made in 1903 and now in the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. Two sitting figures are depicted on a flat neutral background - a decrepit blind old man and a little boy. The images are given here in their sharply contrasting opposition: the face of an old man, wrinkled, as if fashioned by a powerful play of chiaroscuro, with deep cavities of blind eyes, his bony, unnaturally angular figure, the breaking lines of his legs and arms and, as opposed to him, wide-open eyes on a gentle , the softly modeled face of a boy, the smooth, flowing lines of his clothes. A boy standing on the threshold of life, and a decrepit old man, on whom death has already left its mark - these extremes are united in the picture by some tragic commonality. The boy's eyes are wide open, but they seem as unseeing as the terrible gaps in the old man's eye sockets: he is immersed in the same joyless meditation. The dull blue color further enhances the mood of sorrow and hopelessness, which is expressed in the sadly concentrated faces of people. The color here is not the color of real objects, nor is it the color of real light flooding the space of the picture. With the same dull, deadly cold shades of blue, Picasso conveys the faces of people, their clothes, and the background on which they are depicted.

The image is lifelike, but there are many conventions in it. The proportions of the old man's body are hypertrophied, an uncomfortable posture emphasizes his brokenness. Thinness is unnatural. The boy's facial features are oversimplified. “The artist does not tell us anything about who these people are, what country or era they belong to, and why they are sitting on this blue earth, huddled together like this. Nevertheless, the picture speaks volumes: in the contrasting opposition of the old man and the boy, we see both the sad, bleak past of one, and the hopeless, inevitably gloomy future of the other, and the tragic present of both of them. The very mournful face of poverty and loneliness looks at us with its sad eyes from the picture. In his works created during this period, Picasso avoids fragmentation, detailing and strives in every possible way to emphasize the main idea of ​​the depicted. This idea remains common to the vast majority of his early writings; just like in The Old Man Beggar with the Boy, it consists in revealing the disorder, the mournful loneliness of people in the tragic world of poverty.

The Blue Period "is perhaps the first stage in the work of Picasso, in relation to which we can talk about the individuality of the master: despite the still sounding notes of influences, we are already dealing with the manifestation of his true individuality.

The first creative take-off, oddly enough, was provoked by a long depression. In February 1901, in Madrid, Picasso learned of the death of his close friend Carlos Casagemas. On May 5, 1901, the artist came to Paris for the second time in his life, where everything reminded him of Casagemas, with whom he had recently discovered the French capital. Pablo settled in the room where Carlos spent his last days, started a by no means platonic affair with Germain, because of which he committed suicide, communicated with the same circle of people as he did. One can imagine what a complex knot the bitterness of loss, a sense of guilt, a sense of the proximity of death were woven into for him ... All this largely served as the "garbage" from which the "blue period" grew. Later, Picasso said: "I plunged into blue when I realized that Casagemas was dead."

However, in June 1901, at the first Paris exhibition of Picasso, opened by Vollard, there is still no "blue" specificity: 64 works presented are bright, sensual, and the influence of the Impressionists is noticeable in them.

The “blue period” came into its own gradually: rather rigid contours of figures appeared in Picasso’s works, the master stopped striving for the “three-dimensionality” of images, and began to move away from the classical perspective. Gradually, his palette becomes less and less diverse, accents of blue sound more and more. The beginning of the actual "blue period" is considered to be created in the same 1901 "Portrait of Jaime Sabartes".

Sabartes himself said about this work: "Looking at myself on the canvas, I realized what exactly inspired my friend - it was the whole spectrum of my loneliness, seen from the outside."

The key words for this period of Picasso's work are indeed "loneliness", "pain", "fear", "guilt", an example of this is "Self-portrait"

master, created a few days before leaving for Barcelona.

In January 1902 he would return to Spain, he would not be able to stay - the Spanish circle was too small for him, Paris was too tempting for him, he would again go to France and spend several desperately difficult months there. The works were not sold, life was very hard. He had to return to Barcelona again and stay there for the last 15 months.

The capital of Catalonia met Picasso with high tension, he was surrounded on all sides by poverty and injustice. The social ferment that engulfed Europe at the turn of the century also captured Spain. Probably, this also affected the thoughts and moods of the artist, who worked extremely hard and fruitfully in his homeland. Such masterpieces of the "blue period" as "Date (Two Sisters)" are created here,

The image of Casagemas reappears in the painting "Life";

it was written over the work "Last Moments", exhibited at the World Exhibition of 1900 in Paris and became the reason for the first trip of Picasso and Casagemas to the capital of France. During periods of lack of money, the artist wrote down his old canvases more than once, but in this case, this “barbarism” quite possibly had some symbolic meaning as a sign of farewell to the old art and to Carlos, who also remained forever in the past.

In the spring of 1904, the opportunity arose to leave for Paris again, and Picasso did not hesitate. It was in Paris that he was waiting for new sensations, new people, interests and a new - "pink" - period, which dates back to the autumn of 1904.