What is common between the work of Picasso and antiquity: Inimitable-imitated works of the genius of Cubism and Surrealism

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Pablo Picasso needs no introduction. Cubist painter, draftsman, ceramist, sculptor and printmaker, he remains one of the most influential figures in modern cultural history. However, while he was at the very epicenter of contemporary art, many of his sources of inspiration were drawn directly from the ancient past. This is not surprising, since artists have always looked back. But the way antiquity reappeared over and over again in the works of Picasso was far from the moralistic academic paintings of the 18th century, culture and images.

Pablo was a great collector, and he was especially attracted by the simplicity and mystery of ancient artifacts. He discovered ancient Greek art as a student, attending the Louvre, while visits to other European museums revealed that he draws inspiration from past Mediterranean civilizations. In 1917, Pablo visited Italy for the first time with fellow artist Jean Cocteau. He was so inspired by the Roman art he saw there that it sparked what is known as his classical period. The artist's works from 1917 to 1923 are filled with nude statues, classical composition and mythology.

Even before that, Pablo had begun to make disturbing and often erotic-aggressive engravings of the mythological Minotaur. Unsurprisingly, this mythological bull-like creature was a recurring image in the artist's works. Bulls, of course, were an important element of Spanish culture, but that was not all. Pablo was fascinated by the creature's erotic energy and enormous physical strength, which is why there are many versions that he used the Minotaur as his portrait.

Meet the Venus of Willendorf, a 25,000-year-old limestone figurine discovered in 1908 on the banks of the Danube River in Austria. It is one of the earliest known works of art in the world. The statuette's rather large breasts, as well as her wide hips and belly, lead many to believe that she depicts a pregnant woman, possibly a symbol of fertility.

However, outside of algorithms, Venus of Willendorf is more of a glorification of a woman in all her bodily extremes, a beautiful and weighty abstraction of the female form. Pablo was so fascinated by her that he kept copies of her in his studio.

And it is not at all surprising that the influence of Venus shines through in the artist's early cubist nude paintings, painted almost at the same time as her discovery. These monumental modern nudes hint at the shape of her body, her saggy breasts and low-hanging belly. Pablo's nudes tend to have the same sense of seriousness in their surprisingly expressive simplicity.

This abstraction of the female body was revived in the twentieth century with such force that it has not yet exhausted its impulse. An excellent example of this is the work of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle. Her joyful sculptures of Nana perfectly convey the weight and presence of the symbolic female form.

Venus of Willendorf is just one example of how prehistoric masters abstracted figurative form. Compare the images above and below. The first of these is a carving about fourteen thousand years old, found in the La Madeleine cave in France in 1875. The second object below is a converted bike seat and handlebar - a witty piece of modern art. These fragments are separated by thousands of years, but both are imbued with the same spirit of abstraction.

Both forms were predetermined by the material from which they were built. Our prehistoric sculptor brilliantly depicted a bison turning its patterned head to the side. Pablo's bull head is much simpler: reworking the bike seat and handlebars. Both objects show that the creator is doing the same thing by interpreting the object.

In fact, the ability to abstract is what connects ancient art with modern art. Ancient Greek black (and later red) figured pottery, like the image above the Panathenaic prize amphora, demonstrates a complete lack of respect for three-dimensionality. This was not due to the fact that the manufacturers somehow did not possess the technology.

Pottery with red and black figures shows, along with sculpture from roughly the same date, that artisans were far more concerned with drawing, symmetry, and style than showing any interest in depicting what (or who) was in front of them. The same applies to Picasso. After all, abstraction is the understanding of what is in front of you, and the decision to portray it in a completely different way.

Pablo described the creation of his works in 1943 to photographer George Brassai:. Looking at prehistoric and modern work together reveals that the creative process simply hasn't changed.

Pablo's interest in ancient ceramics was most prevalent in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when his studio was based in Vallauris, France. It is in this environment that his fascination with antiquity is most surprising, both from the point of view of the similarity of the form of his ceramic vessels and sculptures, and their decorative and linear motives. As always, instead of copying images and forms directly from the ancient past, the artist invented a kind of fictional mythology saturated with timeless and pastoral imagery.

In 2019, the fantastic exhibition "Picasso and Antiquity" opened at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. Curators Nikolaos Stampolidis and Olivier Berggrün combined the artist's rare ceramics and drawings with antique artifacts, allowing visitors to see a direct link between Pablo and the ancient world. Only by clearly seeing how these objects interact side by side, it becomes clear how much Picasso borrowed in his works from ancient times.

Pablo's attention was drawn not only to Western antiquities. In the early 1900s, the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture also became a powerful aesthetics among avant-garde European artists. The artist himself actually remained ambiguous on this issue, once famously proclaiming, “African art? I've never heard of such a thing."

And it is not at all surprising that this controversy came to the fore a little over ten years ago. The first significant exhibition of the artist's work in South Africa drew furious protests after a senior government official accused him of stealing works of African artists in order to boost his "failing talent."

In The Maidens of Avignon, Pablo treats the figure in a stylized manner that blends with non-Western artistic paths. The three faces in the above image are said to have been modeled after ancient Iberian sculpture. Rumor has it that Picasso took possession of several of these ancient sculptures stolen from the Louvre by his acquaintances.

Pablo himself once said:. One has only to look at his tempestuous amorous life and see the horned and muscular beast as his animal alter ego. If these stories are true, he was, in other words, a real monster for many of his mistresses. While portraying himself as a Minotaur, he simultaneously bragged and confessed this aspect of his character.

So was he really a contemporary artist? Oh sure. But it is very important to remember the connections between his work and the art of antiquity. Pablo's contemporary art should remind us that the creative spark has burned brightly in humanity from the very beginning. The viewer should not look at the work of Pablo and see in them the creation of something completely new, rather, one should perceive his work in such a way in order to remind himself that in fact, little has changed, and is unlikely to change.

Continuing the topic about artists, read also about how figurative painting was revived again, taking a firm place in the world of contemporary art.