Picasso: Post-Cubism Art
Classicalism
Picasso was ever a non-traditionalist and as cubism became a formal style of art felt the need to alternate the style with something different. Although his 1921 painting ‘The Three Musicians’ was cubist art, his work ‘Mother and Child’ in the same year had the figures made on classical lines.
Symbolism
His works of the thirties showed influence of surrealism. In the paintings of this period, objects were found metamorphosed into one another and reference frame was made to shift through double images. Inspired by surrealistic art, Picasso used the objects of classical symbolism in his paintings like the horse and the bull. His famous 1937 painting ‘Guernica’ which depicted the horrors of the Spanish Civil War was infused with surrealistic symbolism. His sculpture also flourished in the thirties when most of his important works were done. He made his sculpture from found materials, plaster and bronze. For big outdoor sculptures, he used Maquette.
Post Second World War Works
Picasso was living in Paris during the Second World War. His style during this period possibly due to the influence of the War became more solemn and less whimsical. His portraits of this period were less dynamic and more urbane. The Mediterranean art with its classical tradition impressed Picasso when he left Paris to live in southern France after the war. Mythology found place in such of his works at that time as ‘La Joie de Vivre’ (1946) depicting daydreams of nymphs and centaurs. Meanwhile he started working more vigorously in ceramics and lithography continuously experimenting with newer and bolder styles. While Picasso had all along worked on prints, prolific burst of work in this area in the forties with his unique innovative creations carried printmaking to new heights and a serious tool of expression. Similar innovations by Picasso in ceramics in an unconventional way made it a medium of superior art that is still expanding. The works of the last twenty years of Picasso were re-expression of all his styles combined with new forms of expressions.
