Blue Period:

Shortly after moving to Paris from Barcelona in 1900, Picasso began to produce works that were primarily blue with hints of green. Blue is effective in conveying a sad, somber tone. Perhaps, the trigger for these depressing paintings was the suicide of Picasso's friend Casagemas. The Blue Period work is quite sentimental, but we must keep in mind that Picasso was still in his late teens, away from home for the first time, and living in very poor conditions.

The artist was well aware of the drastic change in his own style and began signing his paintings "Picasso," where as in the past he often signed "Ruiz Picasso." These paintings were mainly portraits of street people of Paris and Barcelona. Social outcasts from the cities streets and cafes: the beggars, the blind, the loners and the impoverished women, all are actors in his paintings from this period.

To the left is an example of one of his Blue Period works, Tragedy. This painting has the characteristics known in most of his Blue Period works. Sallow and depressed faces, gaunt bodies, blues and blacks, and pictures of the poor and needy. Rather than show the specific circumstances of their misfortune, however, he idealized these figures. Like El Greco, Picasso used idealized, elongated proportions for his figures, instead of the short, stooping reality seen before him. Picasso allows his subjects to escape their worldly fate and occupy a perfect state instead.

Rose Period:
Picasso's life situation and views changed for the postive in 1904 when he met one of the first loves of his life. Fernande Olivier brought happiness into his life; new colors and shades slowly crept into his paintings, soft rose, warm red, and other bright colors. Some believe that the warm tones of this period of work were also influenced by Picasso's habit of smoking opium. These early paintings had pictures of clowns, acrobats, and circus people. In 1906, Picasso was influenced by an exhibition of African tribal art he attended. Tribal art is often elongated and has faceted surfaces. He was also interested in the work of Paul Cézanne, the Father of Modern Art. He liked the clean geometry of shapes found in Cézanne's paintings.

Family of Saltimbanques, 7 ft. x 7 ft., was meant to be a major statement by Picasso. It is a very large work revealing his superb graphic skill and the subtle sense of poverty and sadness that marked those early years. The five acrobats on the left are strained and bored in the deserted, featureless landscape; the lonely girl on the right seems not to belong to their world, it's almost like she's a mirage. The acrobat at the far left bears the artist's features, is dressed as a Harlequin, a joker from eighteenth-century popular theater who would often serve as Picasso's alter ego.

Cubism:
In 1908, he began developing a new style of painting that later became known as Cubism. Like Cézanne, Picasso was not interested in capturing what the eye sees on canvas. He played with the idea of perspective and wanted to see if he could paint all sides of an object at once. Thus, the art movement known as Cubism was born. It was called "cubism" because the painting was now an arrangement of small shapes. With Cubism, you may see the front and back of an object. Picasso said later that he was not interested in starting a movement but rather simply exploring the idea of taking a picture, shattering it like glass, and reassembling it on canvas.

We see the idea of portrait redefined by Picasso in this picture of a nude woman.The woman's body has been divided into groups of geometric shapes. And yet you can tell this is a picture of a person. In art, this movement away from realistic (that is, what is seen with the eye), into the nonrealistic (that is, what is seen with the head) is called abstract art. Picasso's interest in form and with simplifying to the main elements led him into more and more abstract pictures.

Although not everyone understood what Picasso was doing with Cubism, many painters were influenced by this new style and tried to imitate it. Picasso, however, never stayed with only one style and often radically changed the way he painted. Because of this inventiveness, he was hard to categorize. Picasso's interest in change and in trying different styles, not only in painting but also in sculpture and ceramics, was to stay with him throughout his life.

The result was this painting, Guernica. The painting was huge! It's twelve feet high and twenty-five feet long. Picasso made over 800 drawings in preparation for the painting. He used contorted figures with arms, legs and bodies at odd angles to show the effect of the bombing. The bomb itself is only shown through the flash of the electric light.

He used no bright colors, only shades of gray and black. The weeping women and the twisting forms, convey the suffering of the victims. This painting established Picasso's reputation as a great painter. Even critics who rejected abstract art understood his message: war is cruel.

Cup of Coffee, Picasso.
National Gallery of Art

Collage:
Picasso's experimenting with perspective also led him to sculpture. He is credited with inventing the art technique of collage, that is creating a picture by using bits of paper, cardboard, and other material, and sticking it on a flat surface. At this time he began to make three-dimensional objects out of found things, such as wood, paper, string, and cloth.

Collage (French for pasting) is a technique in art consisting of cutting and pasting natural or manufactured materials to a painted or unpainted surface. The art of collage was initiated in 1912 when Picasso pasted a section of commercially printed oilcloth to his cubist painting, Still Life with Chair Caning.

Picasso died at the age of 91 in 1973. His artistic talents were undiminished until the end.

Materials Needed:

See above for ideas...there's no limit to what you can have on your collage!

8.5x11 piece of poster board or cardboard (something that can withstand all that weight)

glue

paint (optional)

Criteria You'll Be Graded On:

1. Must have at least 10 different materials on it!

2. Must represent you.

3. The edge of paper is touched on at least three sides.

4. At least 75% of the paper is covered.

5. Looks like you've spent at least a FULL two hours working on this wonderful piece of art!

6. Craftsmanship. No excess glue seen. Nice clean edges.

7. Description given explaining your collage in 50 words or less.

Step 1: Scavenger hunt! Grab everything that your parents won't miss that might look good. Make sure you ask permission for use of photographs!!

On the far right, I grabbed some digital pictures and made some word art to give mine a little flair.

Step 2: Before you start gluing or sewing on..put all the items down on the piece of paper. Play with a few different arrangements to see what will look good!

Step 3: Start gluing or sewing on. Watch for craftsmanship. Seeing excess glue distracts from a piece of art. For heavier items, you can use a glue gun or super glue.

Step 4: Write your Description of Collage in 50 words or less.

A small description of my collage:

The words: Art: I teach it, love it

Patrick: my husband and best friend

Karma and Jinx: my dog and cat who we treat like children

The quote has followed me through life, it was on my first car's bumper sticker. "I tried to contain myself, but I escaped."

The ribbon and shells are from my wedding.

The flowers are from my garden, my pride and joy

The fish symbolize the four fish tanks I own.

YOUR TURN!