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Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods
Charting Picasso’s journey from the bohemians of the Blue Period to the Rose Period’s acrobats and ingenues, this book celebrates some of the 20th century’s most beloved masterpieces Published for the most ambitious exhibition ever staged by the Fondation Beyeler, this book is devoted to the paintings and sculptures of the young Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) from the so-called Blue and Rose periods, between 1901 and 1906. The masterpieces of these crucial years, every one of them a milestone on Picasso's path to preeminence as the 20th century's most famous artist, are presented together, in an unparalleled concentration and quality. Picasso's pictures from this phase are some of the finest and most emotionally compelling examples of modern painting, and are counted among the most valuable works in the entire history of art.
Throughout the Blue period, Picasso depicted the material deprivation and psychological suffering of people on the margins of society, before turning, in 1905 (when he had settled in Paris), to the themes of the Rose jugglers, acrobats and harlequins. In the summer of 1906, Picasso spent several weeks in the Spanish Pyrenees, where he produced a profusion of paintings and sculptures uniting classical and archaic ideals of the body. His increasing deformation and fragmentation of the figure throughout this period―apparent in the "primitivist" pictures, especially the female nudes―heralded the emergence of the new pictorial language of cubism.
The works of the Blue and Rose periods have a universal appeal and poignancy. Existential themes―life, love, sexuality, fate and death―find embodiment in the delicate beauty of young female and male figures, and in depictions of children and of old people scarred by life, whose rendering by Picasso shows happiness and joy, but also loneliness and melancholy.
Throughout the Blue period, Picasso depicted the material deprivation and psychological suffering of people on the margins of society, before turning, in 1905 (when he had settled in Paris), to the themes of the Rose jugglers, acrobats and harlequins. In the summer of 1906, Picasso spent several weeks in the Spanish Pyrenees, where he produced a profusion of paintings and sculptures uniting classical and archaic ideals of the body. His increasing deformation and fragmentation of the figure throughout this period―apparent in the "primitivist" pictures, especially the female nudes―heralded the emergence of the new pictorial language of cubism.
The works of the Blue and Rose periods have a universal appeal and poignancy. Existential themes―life, love, sexuality, fate and death―find embodiment in the delicate beauty of young female and male figures, and in depictions of children and of old people scarred by life, whose rendering by Picasso shows happiness and joy, but also loneliness and melancholy.
297 pages, Hardcover
Published April 23, 2019
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About the author
Pablo Picasso
995 books964 followersPablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.
Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.
Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.
Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.
Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.
Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.
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September 28, 2019
This edition, entitled “Picasso: the Blue and Rose Periods,” serves as the catalogue to an exhibition, “The Young Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods,” held at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris from September 2018 to January 2019, and at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel from February to May of 2019 ... magnificent color plates with enlightening text ... if only one could have attended ...
Displaying 1 of 1 review