PxlDan

I was reading that a rare Pablo Picasso watercolor done when the artist was in his early twenties was sold at auction yesterday. The painting "Etreinte" (Embrace), shows a nude Picasso entwined in an intimate embrace with his then girlfriend Louise Lenoir, known as Odette.

I am fond of reminding my cousins that show an interest in art that Pablo Picasso was a Ruiz (My mother's maiden name). His father was a Ruiz but professionally, he used his mothers name. Perhaps he was a mama's boy. As a young artist, Picasso's work had a profound impact on how I viewed and understood art (My cat, Pablocito, is a nod to the artists influence).

In addition to being the most recognized and celebrated artist of our time he would also seem to be the most quoted.  So I thought I would post some of my favorite Picasso quotes along with why I believe that he is so admired among young artists - or at least me.

1. The Natural Talent - Like many artists, Picasso showed a knack for the arts at a young age, but under the guidance of his father, an academic art instructor, he developed the fundamentals required to truly excel as an artist. The most popular legend of his youth was his fathers vowing to give up painting upon seeing his child reworking one of his own unfinished sketches in a manner that was better than his own.

"When I was their age I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them."

2. The Lifestyle - Picasso's art is autobiographical. Today, a romanticized bohemian life is idealized in the mind of a young artist and Paris in the early 1900's was the epitome of artistic decadence and the advant-garde. This is the period that gave birth to Picasso's emotional, blue period. A somber analysis of poverty and instability marked by the suicide of his close friend and studio mate in 1901.

"One must act in painting as in life, directly."

3. The Bravado - In his lifetime, Picasso developed a series of ever-changing artistic styles that challenged the traditional conventions of the art world. He was also generally considered to be dominating and egotistical. It is this artistic bravado along with the masculine iconography employed in his work and the fact that he maintained a number of mistresses in addition to the occasional wife that lends to his allure of "Machismo" among young artists.

"Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs."

4. The Prolific Creativity -  Although he is best known for his cubist work, he has worked in a wide variety of styles and in many mediums: paintings, drawings, sculpture, theater and costume designs, ceramics, lithographs and etchings. I have always been partial to the neoclassical (the Olga years) period myself; but no matter the period, Picasso was amazingly prolific.

"Whenever I wanted to say something, I said it the way I believed I should. Different themes inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply either evolution or progress; it is a matter of following the idea one wants to express and the way in which one wants to express it."

5. The Fame - Choosing to study art is a risky decision most often equated with the tragic and tortured artist mystique. A young artist needs to believe that there is an audience that can appreciate the work. In his life time Picasso was a celebrity with street cred. In his later years, he was earning millions, and, upon his death, left an estate estimated at $1.1 billion, assuring his position as the richest artist who ever lived.

“I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.”

There are 1 Comments for 5 Reasons Pablo Picasso Remains a Major Influence Among Young Artists

Add A Comment

Name:

Email:

URL:

Message:

Performing Spam Check