QUARANTINE BLOG # 678

March 4, 2022

Let’s begin with an art quiz – and pretend you did not read QB 666.

Below are 7 paintings.  Your task is to name the artists who produced those works.  Ready?  And let’s not always see the same hands.

The Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo. The Last Supper by DaVinci. Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Water Lilies by Claude Monet.

And Science and Charity, Seated Woman, and Dora Maar were painted by Pablo Picasso. Science and Charity he painted when he was 15. What in the world happened to him after he grew up?

If you think about modern art, Pablo Picasso is probably the first name that pops into your head. Art today wouldn’t be the same without him!

Pablo Picasso lived through two world wars, the invention of electricity, telephones, radio and TV, movies, automobiles, and airplanes. He made all kinds of art and plenty of it. As soon as he mastered a certain style, he’d move on. As a result, the way he painted changed more than any other great artist. He painted virtually every day for more than 80 years. Some people say he created 50,000 pieces art!

Picasso was successful and became famous quite quickly. At 9 years old, he was selling his drawings. When he was a child, he could draw as well as a talented grown-up. But the older he got, the more he wanted to make art like a child. By the time he died at age ninety-one, he was the richest artist in history.

Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga. His parents named him Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. Twenty-three names, after saints and family members.

With his incredible career, is little wonder that his first words were “Piz! Piz!” That’s baby talk in Spanish for lapiz, which means “pencil.”

As a boy, he went to bullfights with his father. His first known painting at age 9 – Le Picador – is of a bullfight. Bullfight and Pigeons is one of his first pencil drawings, done about the same time. 

Picasso did frequent series of paintings on the theme corrida de toros. Bull fighting is not a fair contest. It was never meant to be. The bull is stronger. The matador is stronger, and he wears the bull down. Usually.

This link is to a movie I made using Picasso's works, and a trumpet background by Doc Severenson.

Picasso’s career really began when he was a teenager. 

In 1896 at age 15, he painted First Communion which was his first large-scale oil painting (46 inches by 65 inches). His father was the model for the male figure. Some say his sister Lola is the girl who is transitioning from youth to adulthood. 

Notice the detail in the lace, the altar cloth, and the girl's veil.

In Science and Charity his father and sister, Lola, were his models. Lola was shown sick in bed. His father posed as the doctor at her bedside. The painting won Honorable Mention in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, and a Gold Medal at the Provincial Exhibition in Malaga, both in 1897.

Again, notice the detail: the baby's curls, the stains on the wall, the folds on clothing and blanket.

In 1901 Picasso and an old art school friend, Carles Casagemas, moved to Paris. They had no money. Their apartment had no furniture so Picasso painted furniture and bookcases on the walls. He painted a safe on the wall as if they had valuable things to put in it.

The happiness of Paris began to change when Carles’ girlfriend left him. Carles and Pablo moved back to Malaga. Back in Paris Casagemas was at his wits’ end. He was sexual impotent. Nevertheless, he became infatuated with a woman named Germaine,  who did not return his affections, and the painful rejection sent Casagemas into a serious depression.

On the night of February 17th, 1901, Casagemas sat in L'Hippodrome Café with Germaine and several other friends. Suddenly, he pulled a revolver from his jacket and fired a shot at Germaine, who avoided the bullet by ducking under the table. Casagemas then put the gun to his right temple and fired another shot into his head. 

Carles’s death affected Picasso’s painting, “It was thinking of Casagemas that made me start painting in blue” – his Blue Period. He did a blue self-portrait in 1901, reflecting his sadness. La Vie – a memorial to Carles portraying happiness and grief – was the pinnacle of his Blue Period.

Picasso created another painting when he suffering  depression from the death of Carlos Casagemas. In Les Noces  (translated as “The Marriage of Pierrete”) he portrays rich socialites gossiping and suited up in gowns and top hats yet no person seems to express any real emotions. Critics suggest that Picasso was pointing to his unhappy life following the death of his friend.

Picasso did 50 paintings using tones of blue and green. No one bought them. They were too depressing. In 1989, Les Noces de Pierrette sold for $51 million. It is one of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

From 1901 to 1904, Picasso moved back and forth between Barcelona and Paris. He shared one apartment with Max Jacob, a poet and a painter. They could only afford one bed, so Picasso slept in it during the day, and Max slept in it at night. Pablo worked at night, a habit that continued for the rest of his life.

Picasso’s story continues next week with “Life in Paris.”

🛐  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors” (Psalm 31:14-15).

Driven to the end of our own resources (and the resources and patience of others), we find that the world can look and sound very much like an enemy “out to get us.” The same experience can drive us to a deeper trust in God, whereby we can say, “My times are in your hand.”

Prayer: “Discouraged in the work of life, disheartened by its load, shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road; but let me only think of Thee and then new heart springs up in me” (Samuel Longfellow, “I Look to Thee in Every Need”). Amen.

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