Vonte3000
Chance 3 :wow: :blessed:
Picasso's African Period lasted from 1907 to 1909. This period, which followed his Blue Period and Rose Period, was also called the Negro Period or Black Period.
As Henri Matisse exhibited his Blue Nude in 1907 and The Dance in 1909, Picasso countered with the work that become one of the cornerstones of his fame, which we now know as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. In this work, he began to incorporate African influences into his work.
Before Picasso started his Back Period he came into the possession of some ancient Iberian sculptures that he got from an acquantaince who had stolen them from the Louvre museum in Paris. In Les Demoiselles d'Avignon the faces of the three women on the left are based on the Iberian sculptures. So as to avoid compositional monotony, Picasso based the faces of the two women on the right on the African totem art, that he had also collected.
Just look at this stuff
left Picasso right African mask
Picasso left Africa right
Later in his life, Picasso would deny he had been inspired by African art, while making the Demoiselles (partly because of political, patriotic reasons - Picasso preferred to emphasize the Iberian nature of the painting), but there seems to be ample evidence that he was familiar with, and was already collecting African art while making the Demoiselles.
Picasso acknowledged that a visit to the Trocadero museum changed him, but he didn't say why, he never gave African art the credit it deserves. Some pieces of African art in the Trocadero are as much "wonders of the world" as the pyramid of Giza or the works of Rembrandt, not technically of intellectually, but for their incredible emotional intensity. Throughout Picasso's work you can see references to some of the African masks he saw at the Trocadero, but rather as pale, timid caricatures, totally lacking the power of the originals - maybe that's why Picasso always was so secretive about his African influences. Picasso's unique gift to art was his unparalleled flexibility, that allowed him to identify, absorb and use in his own art, much of what the history of human art had to offer.
Great paper on the subject here
https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/hono..._pablo_picasso_and_his_work_nadeenpennisi.pdf
Excerpt:
" Later that evening, at one of
Gertrude Stein’s weekly gatherings, Matisse showed Picasso his newly acquired piece, the first Picasso had ever seen. Matisse said that Picasso was “very impressed” by the
sculpture and added, “We talked a long time about it and this was the beginning of all our
interest in Negro art-interest which we have more or less shown in our paintings”
Gertrude Stein would later write about that introduction in her book The Autobiography
of Alice B. Tolkas (1913) (Goldwater145). Max Jacob, a French writer who was also
present recounted the following:
Matisse took a wooden statuette off a table and showed it to Picasso. Picasso held it in his
hands all evening. The next morning when I came to his studio the floor was strewn with
sheets of drawing paper. Each sheet had virtually the same drawing on it, a big woman’s
face with a single eye, a nose too long that merged into a mouth, a lock of hair on one
shoulder … Cubism was born (Huffington 90).
Not only was Picasso impressed by the sculpture, but it also helped him to solve a
dilemma he had with an unfinished portrait of Gertrude Stein. In 1905, Gertrude Stein
sat ninety times for the portrait. Uninspired and dissatisfied, Picasso finally erased her
face. It was not until months later that he returned to the painting. In 1906, newly
inspired by the Congolese sculpture that Matisse had shown him, he painted Gertrude’s
face without her being present with African mask-like features (Figure2). When
someone commented that Gertrude did not look like her portrait, Picasso answered, “She
will” (Spurling 372). On the other hand, Matisse only used the sculpture once in an
unfinished still life (Figure 3). Gertrude Stein had remarked how differently that moment
of seeing that sculpture had affected the two painters"
Here's a funny quote though:
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Pablo Picasso
As Henri Matisse exhibited his Blue Nude in 1907 and The Dance in 1909, Picasso countered with the work that become one of the cornerstones of his fame, which we now know as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. In this work, he began to incorporate African influences into his work.
Before Picasso started his Back Period he came into the possession of some ancient Iberian sculptures that he got from an acquantaince who had stolen them from the Louvre museum in Paris. In Les Demoiselles d'Avignon the faces of the three women on the left are based on the Iberian sculptures. So as to avoid compositional monotony, Picasso based the faces of the two women on the right on the African totem art, that he had also collected.
Just look at this stuff
left Picasso right African mask
Picasso left Africa right
Later in his life, Picasso would deny he had been inspired by African art, while making the Demoiselles (partly because of political, patriotic reasons - Picasso preferred to emphasize the Iberian nature of the painting), but there seems to be ample evidence that he was familiar with, and was already collecting African art while making the Demoiselles.
Picasso acknowledged that a visit to the Trocadero museum changed him, but he didn't say why, he never gave African art the credit it deserves. Some pieces of African art in the Trocadero are as much "wonders of the world" as the pyramid of Giza or the works of Rembrandt, not technically of intellectually, but for their incredible emotional intensity. Throughout Picasso's work you can see references to some of the African masks he saw at the Trocadero, but rather as pale, timid caricatures, totally lacking the power of the originals - maybe that's why Picasso always was so secretive about his African influences. Picasso's unique gift to art was his unparalleled flexibility, that allowed him to identify, absorb and use in his own art, much of what the history of human art had to offer.
Great paper on the subject here
https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/hono..._pablo_picasso_and_his_work_nadeenpennisi.pdf
Excerpt:
" Later that evening, at one of
Gertrude Stein’s weekly gatherings, Matisse showed Picasso his newly acquired piece, the first Picasso had ever seen. Matisse said that Picasso was “very impressed” by the
sculpture and added, “We talked a long time about it and this was the beginning of all our
interest in Negro art-interest which we have more or less shown in our paintings”
Gertrude Stein would later write about that introduction in her book The Autobiography
of Alice B. Tolkas (1913) (Goldwater145). Max Jacob, a French writer who was also
present recounted the following:
Matisse took a wooden statuette off a table and showed it to Picasso. Picasso held it in his
hands all evening. The next morning when I came to his studio the floor was strewn with
sheets of drawing paper. Each sheet had virtually the same drawing on it, a big woman’s
face with a single eye, a nose too long that merged into a mouth, a lock of hair on one
shoulder … Cubism was born (Huffington 90).
Not only was Picasso impressed by the sculpture, but it also helped him to solve a
dilemma he had with an unfinished portrait of Gertrude Stein. In 1905, Gertrude Stein
sat ninety times for the portrait. Uninspired and dissatisfied, Picasso finally erased her
face. It was not until months later that he returned to the painting. In 1906, newly
inspired by the Congolese sculpture that Matisse had shown him, he painted Gertrude’s
face without her being present with African mask-like features (Figure2). When
someone commented that Gertrude did not look like her portrait, Picasso answered, “She
will” (Spurling 372). On the other hand, Matisse only used the sculpture once in an
unfinished still life (Figure 3). Gertrude Stein had remarked how differently that moment
of seeing that sculpture had affected the two painters"
Here's a funny quote though:
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Pablo Picasso
But yea how could you not see it:
