2.1.6 Picasso
Because Frida Kahlo's life was so inspirational to me I started to look at other painters. This time at painters working on large areas, I found an article in the NZZ, a newspaper in Switzerland on the 12th of January 2012. It had a painting on a 800m black canvas, a scene out of the spanish civil war by Picasso. Picasso was born 1881 on the 25th of October in Spain. Guernica the name of the painting created in 1937, depicts the german bombing of Guernica in the spanish civil war and the chaos it left behind. Picasso pioneered cubism a form of painting used in the 20th century, the avant garde art movement. It is a form of painting where realistic form is deconstructed and then reconstructed again in an abstract form. The painting of Guernica carries alot of symbolism, for example the light bulb in the evil eye, light bulb in the Spanish language sounds almost the same as bomb. This Painting is an oil painting where different forms of objects are put over each other almost invisible to the naked eye, an example of this is found when you look at the body of the horse where the side view of a skull is visible, another example is at the knee of the horse where a bull is visible. The painting is painted in black and white because it helped Picasso to clarify his forms and give it a bigger contrast, he did not want to distract the viewer with confusing colors. The painting was a direct political statement against the civil war and General Franco. This was something that Frida Kahlo and Picasso had in common, they both helped refugees to survive. Picasso helped through the use of his foundation giving refugees support with the sale of his painting, Frida took the refugees in to her house with open arms, they were both fighting for a democratic republic. The painting of Guernica is interesting to me because it shows how painting in black and white creates contrast and clarity.Cubism is also a form of painting I would like to experiment with because I find it fascinating how we as human beings perceive form and how we can represent this in an abstract way.
