Back in the Spring I had a wonderful view of the Picasso Exhibition at Tate Modern in London.
I blogged about it here, thought not so much on Picasso since there were limitations on the photos you could take. I am not at all clear why - but I guess some of the works had been lent and there were rules imposed by the lenders.
Anyhow, that exhibition was quite impactful. It helped me understand Picasso a bit more - but I'm no art historian and my education is very lacking. Still a long way to go, though I do understand how he pushed the boundaries.
Meanwhile, over on the wonderful sharing community that is the Internet, I found this little video. It explains how Picasso painted this "Bust of a Woman" dating from 1909, just as he was beginning to explore Cubism.
And if you dig around a bit more, you find an explanatory page which puts the picture in a bit of context.
I hope you enjoy.
Oh, by the way, you have until the 9th September to see the exhibition. It is at Tate Modern. Worth the queues in my view.
This brought back pleasant memories. I think my first exposure to Picasso was a large print of Guernica my brother picked up when in Spain and shipped home for safekeeping while he continued his tour. I was maybe 15 and constantly being exposed to broader things by this brother. My dad couldn't help but unrolling this print and just shook his head, totally unable to fathom why anyone would want that on their wall. I admit, I was pretty confused by it too! My next experience with Picasso was when I was in college and got a chance to spend time at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. They had several of his paintings from his blue period and I fell in love with them, buying a small print of one and a postcard of another. Fast forward to 2009 when I ran across some quotation of Picasso's and decided I really needed to learn more about him, checking out a book from the library. Oh my - it really was so interesting finding out about his progression from one stage to the next and I finally started to get a grip on those multi-perspective and garish paintings of women.
ReplyDeleteI'd been taking a drawing class and decided to use some of the paintings in the book to practice on. I'd always heard how much one could learn by copying the masters and now I was experiencing that much to my delight. I particularly remember how when drawing the nose of one of his early characters my pencil slipped and suddenly I had the nose of the some of the women in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Ah, I thought, maybe THIS is how it happened for him too, a slip of the pencil! Here is one of several blog posts on my experience of copying: https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-on-copying.html
So thanks for this post and a chance to revisit Picasso and my experiences with his art.
My absolute pleasure, Sheila. And thank you for your lovely response to my post.
DeleteI have heard about copying old masters, and I am pretty sure some of the new masters did just that during their training. Oh, to have the luxury of the time to just spend in a gallery simply copying and learning. A luxury I just don't have. But you are right, a great way to learn.
And I am sure you are right about happy accidents. Picasso was just so prolific that he cannot have had the time to go back and correct mistakes - he must have just gone with them to fulfil the obligations he had to his dealers etc. Working to a deadline does give you a real sense of purpose.
As always, thanks for dropping by.
H xxx