A terrific perspective on Picasso by Lisa Ekshyyan, Shreveport

Lisa Ekshyyan, Shreveport
Originally uploaded by trudeau

A quartet of half nude females standing against a wall on a canvas pervade the eye. With their African themed faces and sharp lines the 1907 piece of art is perhaps the most important work of Picasso. Le Demoiselled D’Avingon sounds like a painting of young women, sophisticated and fresh in beauty, but instead it is a sharp cut painting of prostitutes before a brothel. The work seems to carry much of Picasso’s spirit and much of his view of women.

Picasso has been considered one of the greatest artists of the modern age. With his promiscuous lifestyle Picasso has been described as “immoral”, and his work has been both inspiring and horrifying. It is easy to imagine Pablo Picasso as a man at the height of power in the art world with women draping themselves over him. He could be seen at the beach with a girl forty tears younger then him, such as Maria Therese Walter, and later spending his evening drawing with a wife by his side. Having over ten relationships, Pablo Picasso was not a man to be tied down. His love for beauty and constant need for change led to his numerous flirtations and numerous deaths and suicides of his lovers, as well as his many styles of art. It is hard not to see him as a playboy, using his fame for his own pleasures, disregarding the hearts and emotions of others. In fact it is perhaps that description of him that led to at least a fraction of his fame.

Having started his art at his father’s studio painting doves that exceeded his father’s best work, he studied classic works and tried his hand at realistic painting, but his cup of tea was always the strange, abstract, almost childish drawings. His most famous painting “Guernica” does not posses the exquisite skill of shadows, perfect lines, and eye catching design. It is large and dramatic, but the work perhaps could have been drawn by anyone.

Still in many ways it seems wrong to say that Picasso was not truly talented. He has been recognized as an extremely influential artist, thus his works, although perhaps not the most favorite of some, must have some merit. It was of course Picasso that along with Georges Braque advanced cubism to its then height.