Essay on Picasso: use specific examples such as the famous She-Goat sculpture

Goat sculpture by Picasso
Originally uploaded by Dano

- 15 pt essay of about 1 page, Google Doc, under the general heading of What made Picasso so Successful?
- Reference and describe at least 2 of his pieces.
- Refer to at least 2 other artists.
- Refer to the geography.
- Due Mon.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso threw a slab of clay onto a board. He grabbed wood lathing and fashioned an animal-like armature. He began to smack lumps of clay onto the frame. A goat began to take shape.

Today, that animal has been cast in bronze and resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

PIcasso saw himself as a minotaur, a bull-headed creature, not a goat. But because he lived so long - to age 93 - he had to confront the fact that he was, in some ways, a horny and simple goat.

This multi-faceted artist was enormously successful - the most powerful name in 20th century painting and sculpture, says Wikipedia.com. What was the ingredient that catapulted him past Matisse and Man Ray and Dali? It was his sense of the magical in life.

On the one hand, Picasso was a serious student of what worked in art. He was a steady consumer of the best European art as seen in the great museums of Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. He knew what worked for his predescessors: among them Velazquez, El Greco and Michelangelo.

But it was his ability to release the playful inner child in his sketches that proved to be the spine of his upright gorilla.