Pablo Picasso

22 April, 2014

Today we toured more of Barcelona, as part of our Tour of Spain, over the Easter holidays. The highlight for me was the Picasso Museum, which showcased some of his earlier works.

Pablo Picasso's father was a painter and started training him at age 3. He was a child star, the Michael Jackson of painting. By the time he was 12, young Pablo was being compared to the classic painters of antiquity. He said of himself, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

Science and Charity--Picasso Age 15, Picasso Barcelona

Prior to studying some of his work, I had never appreciated Picasso's paintings, due mostly to my vast ignorance of art. He's still not my favorite, but I do have a much deeper respect for his talent.

Picasso's cubist style allowed him to take apart a picture and reassemble it, transforming people and things into shapes and colors. Once deconstructed, he could play around with the images like pieces of a puzzle. One of my favorite exhibits was Las Ménines. This was actually a Velázquez painting from 1656, which we saw at the Prado in Madrid. Picasso disassembled it and changed the colors several times. Each version took your eye to a different focal point, which was fascinating. Velázquez, as a realist, wanted to create an image that closely approximated life. Picasso, as a cubist, wanted to give the picture a life of its own, separate from the original figures.

Les Ménines--Velázquez, Prado Madrid

Les Ménines-Picasso, Picasso Museum Barcelona

We also saw Guernica at the Reina Sofia in Madrid, which depicts the horrors of war. Germany practiced blitzkrieg in April, 1937 on several Spanish towns as part of the Spanish Civil War. Guernica was one of the unfortunate targets of death and destruction. The painting was unveiled at the Paris World's Fair in 1937 and caused an instant sensation. Rich in symbolism, Picasso used his cubist technique to throw together several disjointed images into one collage of Hell. Everyone and everything suffers during war. The painting is massive, over 28 feet long and 11 feet high, commanding your attention. You cannot escape. The color and light reflect misery and pain, while the images convey true horror. I have not read anything about the name of the painting, but guerra means "war" in Spanish, so maybe there is a cruel irony in the fact that the Germans chose that city to bomb. Picasso dictated in his will that the painting would not reside on Spanish soil until democracy returned to the nation. The painting finally arrived home in Madrid in 1981, just in time to celebrate what would have been Picasso's 100th birthday.

Guernica--Reina Sofia, Madrid

Pablo Picasso used his art as a voice to speak about a variety of subjects. The true beauty of his art is that it still speaks today, even to a simple Redneck in Europe.