PICASSO, PABLO (1881— ). The initiator of Cubism in modern painting. He was born on Oct. 23, 1881, at Malaga, in Spain. His father was an artist and professor at the Academy at Barcelona, and under him Pablo received his first lessons in art. After many visits to Paris, he settled there in 1903. Though a Catalan by birth, he developed his art in France, where he became one of the leaders of the Post-Impressionist school.
His early work displays a clear contour, a carefully planned space arrangement, and plastic modelling in cool, greenish-grey tones, almost monochrome. One might trace therein the influence of Daumier and of Toulouse-Lautrec. Like the latter, he chose the subject matter of his pictures from the life of the circus, and from the morbid side of life in a big city, and he rendered with intense sincerity of feeling the strained and sad look of young soubrettes of Montmartre, of acrobats and harlequins. He thus, from the beginning, followed a line distinct from that of Matisse and his Fauvist following, who took pleasure in colour and flat patterns, as such, and who never entirely broke with the traditions of Impressionism. To this early period are : "La Famille Soler" (1903), a rhythmically composed family group; "l'Aveugle" (1903), archaic in the delineation of form; "La Boule" (1905), a composition with two acrobats.
The Cubistic formula was gradually evolved by Picasso and Georges Braque, between 1906 and 1910, while studying the composition of still life groups consisting mainly of bowls with fruit, bottles, glasses, and musical instruments. It was Braque who first introduced into his designs nails and bits of printed paper, delighting in the harmonious distribution of certain black letterpress on white paper. Picasso then added pieces of wood and other tangible objects, which led to a form of art where sculpture and painting were combined.
During Picasso's earlier Cubist period, the surfaces of his can vases were delicately toned in brown or grey by dots in pointillist fashion displaying some constructive design—mainly abstract, though here and there realistic fragments of recognizable objects were introduced. The gradations of light and dark suggested shading and space. At a later period this three dimensional ele ment disappeared ; colour notes were introduced and the design formed a purely two dimensional pattern.
The artist did not seek to imitate form, but to create form. As opposed to the Impressionist pre-occupation with the rendering of ever-changing and superficial appearances, he wished to make images, which, by the clearness of their structure, should convey an idea of life and reality. Carrying his convictions to the logi cal extreme, he discarded all resemblance to natural form, and endeavoured to create a purely abstract language of form—a visual music. Thus, though these pictures may seem to most of
us theoretic abstractions, the artist tried to convey a deep reality. "For reality alone, even when concealed has power to arouse emotion." In these realistic and mystical conceptions he shows himself a true son of Spain.
After 1918, Picasso again based his pictures on natural form. His paintings became magnificently plastic and monumental. His clear, incisive outline drawings are executed with forcible direct ness and with rigid economy of means.
Picasso's inventive gift, which led him from one experiment to another, inspired many followers. Painters such as Metzinger, Gleizes, Leger, Villon, and sculptors such as Archipenko and Lip schitz, to name only a few, followed in his wake. He was one of the first to appreciate the weird expressiveness of negro sculpture; his style led to an appreciation of "significant form" and of con structive design in all branches of art. He became the paramount influence in modern art, besides Cezanne, who is sometimes claimed as the initiator of the Cubist movement ; though the great artist of Aix, with his intense feeling for nature, would probably have disowned this offspring.
Picasso's influence was also felt on the stage. He himself pro duced a series of designs for curtains, scenery and costumes for certain Russian ballets. The history of his collaboration with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie in the ballet Parade (1917) is told by Cocteau in Le coq et L'Arlequin (English trans. 1921). Other ballets for which he produced designs were Tricorne (192o), Cuadro Flamenco, an Andalusian dance (1921), and Pulcinella (1926). In the creation of these artistic ensembles his great qualities as a designer, the unlooked for beauty of his harmonies, his astonishing audacities, stand him in good stead.
The most representative collection of his later work is in the possession of G. F. Reber, Lausanne. The best early works are with Lotte von Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin. Other important works are with Paul Rosenberg, Paris; A. Flechtheim, Dussel dorf, and with the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.
Picasso illustrated several books, notably Andre Salmon, Le Manuscrit trouve dans un chapeau. He executed portrait draw ings of contemporary writers and musicians such as Stravinsky, J. Cocteau, M. Jacob, Apollinaire, A. Salmon, etc. He also etched several plates.
See Guillaume Apollinaire, Les Peintres Cubistes (1912) ; Max Raphael, Von Monet zu Picasso (Munich, 1922) ; Leone Rosenberg, Cubisme et Tradition (192o) ; Maurice Raynal, Picasso (1921) ; Andre Salmon, L'Art Vivant and Picasso (192o) . (I. A. R.)