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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Pablo Picasso is one of the most important artists ever because he changed the way that people looked at art.

Shapes and Styles

Until the early 20^th century most paintings and sculptures were of people, things or places. Sometimes they also included scenes from the Bible or mythology. But they were all painted in a realistic style.

Picasso began looking for inspiration and discovered sculptures and masks from other continents like Africa and Australia. He was fascinated by their shapes and styles. ‘The masks weren’t like other kinds of sculpture,’ he said. ‘They were magical things.’

Image Credit: Photo by Stevyn Colgan

We saw this video when thinking about Good and Bad Art, but watch it again to remind yourself how Picasso was influenced by ancient art:

The Kodak Brownie camera

Photography was a pretty new invention when Picasso was a boy. And in 1901, when he was 20, a company called Kodak invented a camera called the Brownie. It was cheap enough for most people to afford and, all of a sudden, people were taking photographs instead of asking artists to paint things for them. Artists began to worry that no one would want their work anymore. And they also wondered if they could do anything with art that the cameras couldn’t.

Image Credit: Photo by Stevyn Colgan

Primitivism

Picasso collected African sculpture and decided to try bringing those shapes into his paintings and sculptures. It became known as Primitivism because it used ‘primitive’ (meaning ‘simple’) abstract shapes. Later on, he would combine these exciting new shapes and forms with other ideas to create Cubism, which was the beginning of what we now call Modern Art!

YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT …

Your own cubist portrait

Get yourself some paper and some things to make marks with. You can also watch the video to take you through the steps below.

Your Task

Step by step:

Draw an egg shape to represent a human head.
Then draw a line down the middle.
Now, on the left side of the face draw an angry face from the side like this:

Next steps:

Colour it in an angry hot colour!
Now fill in the right side of the picture with half a happy face facing forwards.
Colour it a happy colour.

Why not add some dark outlines in ink, pen or paint? Think about which colours best express the moods that each side of the face is exhibiting. Exaggerate or distort the features to enhance the emotions if you want to. Add ears facing forwards or sideways. Add some multi-coloured hair. Go wild!

Show Tanno and Iguda your art! Ask an adult to post a photo of your cubist portrait with us on Instagram or Facebook: @FunPostcardsFrom