George's Art Heros ... Pablo Picasso

In the United Nations headquarters in New York there is a full size replica tapestry copy of the large grey toned painting Picasso did for the 1937 Paris Exhibition. The painting is called ‘Guernica’ and it depicts the horrors of the bombing the Nazis did to innocent civilians in April 1937 to the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. It is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces.

Fast-forward to the 5^th of February 2003 and Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave a press conference at the United Nations regarding what was then going to be the likely conflict of the second Iraq war. The conference was held in the same room that had the tapestry copy hanging up and a large blue curtain was placed to cover it so that it would not be visible in the background. Many journalists suspect that the Bush Administration covered the tapestry for the reason that it’s not really the sort of picture you want in the background when arguing a case for a controversial war. 

Controversy always surrounds Picasso’s work. Some people can’t stand it saying he draws like a child, and that it is stupid messy art that anyone can do.

Ironically Picasso himself even commented on this stating:

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”

and..

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”

He of course was right…. Here are some examples of his very early child hood works….

 

This is why I personally love his work and why he is a hero to me. He knew he could draw well from a young age. I think he got bored with that after awhile as he couldn’t take it anywhere new, different and interesting. Over the following years he decided challenged all the rules of art and throw them apart. He inspired completely new ways of doing works, inspiring all sorts of movements and styles. He inspired not just artists but other areas such architecture, graphic design, fashion and product design. He helped to break free from the old ways of classical traditional painting and turned the art world on its head.

Many of his works weren’t about drawing a subject all perfect and formally correct, instead it was much more how to express the essence of the subject …. capturing all the intangible characteristics rather the obvious surface level tangible ones.

To illustrate this point take a look at these drawings Picasso did of a Spanish Bull:

You can see him showing how you can still have the essence of a subject but can experiment with it and really turn into something new and interesting. It goes back to his quote of drawing like a child ... it is hard to draw like a child when you are a serious and formally trained artist. You have to train your self to strip things down to their simplistic essence and to un-do all that you have learnt before. Children draw with an unhinged level of freedom and creativity and that is what Picasso wanted in his work. Being a trained formal artist though helped him achieve greatness as he could take this approach and meld it with visual knowledge and techniques to take his work into the realm of greatness and genius.

To show you what a genius I think he was have a look at this short video montage of him at work. … It shows the passion and energy the man had all throughout his life even at old age and the vast wealth fame and celebrity superstar status that he gained.

Video courtesy of ‘‪guitarnica’ on youtube.

Enjoy!