Day 10 – Pablo & the Blues

Today I spent more time looking at Pablo Picasso… there is a lot of information out there on him. So, first of all, two fun facts:

• Picasso’s given name when he was born was “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad.” Seriously. That is a long name.
• Apparently, more of Picasso’s paintings have been stolen than any other artist. Nice claim to fame there.

I read through the some Wikipedia pages on Picasso today (find them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso%27s_Blue_Period), and simultaneously learned a lot and was overwhelmed by the amount of information. Love or hate him, there is no denying that Picasso has had a profound influence on the world of art, and had a long, vibrant career. I don’t think I like most of his work; however, I’m fascinated by him as a person.

His paintings are typically divided into several different periods, and today I found myself reading about his “blue period.” From 1901-1904, he created somber paintings in blue shades. I love the color blue- it’s my favorite color. However, it can be either a very happy or sad color. For example, usually a blue sky or beautiful blue ocean are thought of as happy scenes. Picasso’s blue paintings were not such happy scenes, but were more on the depressing side of blue and contain themes of loneliness, poverty and despair. Picasso was depressed and mourning the suicide death of a friend, and his paintings show this depressed tone. Although these works are popular today, he had difficulty selling them at the time. The Old Guitarist (pictured below), is one well known work from this time period. Apparently it is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. (I really need to get back by there!) I think what makes this painting seem really depressing to me is that the man’s skin has a blue tone. It just looks so unnatural and gives the painting a haunted feel. Many of his “blue period” paintings are like this.

I’m having a hard time deciding if I like this or not. On the one hand, it is a pretty somber painting. On the other hand, the color of a painting matters a lot to me. I think I’m leaning towards not liking it… I don’t think liking the color is enough to overcome the moodiness of the painting, and I’m not much into moody art these days. I definitely went through an emo phase, but these days I prefer things to be more bright and happy.

What do you think of this painting, and of Picasso’s Blue Period?

Xoxo, 

Diana

Day 2 - The Story Behind the Artist

I decided to spend my coffee time today looking a bit into the Impressionists, at the recommendation of my friend and former professor, “Doc Rose.” Doc Rose was one of my favorite professors in undergrad- I took a linguistics class from her. Linguistics was known as a very difficult, scary class at my university, but it was a required class to graduate if you were an English major. Since I was only an English minor (my major was psychology), I wasn’t actually required to take Linguistics to graduate. Spurred on by a love of all things language (ok, and perhaps a little bit of pride that “just because I was only an English minor and not major, that did NOT mean I was incapable of handling the highly dreaded Linguistics), I took the class anyways. I’m glad I did – the class was challenging but not impossible, and I enjoyed the content. (Yes, even the diagramming sentences part. Grammar nerd alert.) Doc Rose and I still keep in touch via Facebook, and when she read my blog yesterday she told me she likes the Impressionists, particularly Gustave Caillebotte. Since Doc Rose has never steered me wrong on literature recommendations, I decided to take her art recommendation and check out the Impressionists.

So, this morning, I found myself drinking a hot cup of Joe while reading the Wikipedia page for Mr. Caillebotte. By the way, I have a love/hate relationship with Wikipedia. I still (rightly!) refuse to use it for formal research, but I must admit it’s often a good starting place for learning about a new topic about which you know nothing. After reading the Wikipedia page, I was intrigued. I found out that Caillebotte went to law school and was licensed to practice law. I’m always interested when I see someone who was a lawyer pursuing a different career path, since I’m a lawyer but sometimes many times wonder what else is out there for me. Reading Caillebotte’s story made me interested in seeing some of his work. Lucky for me, one of his most famous paintings, Paris Street; Rainy Day (pictured below), is owned by the Chicago Art Institute. I’m going to try to get by there this month and see it. The real take away from this morning, however, is that I enjoyed hearing the story of the artist himself, and this is what made me interested to learn more about and see some of his art. It’s too soon to say, but perhaps it will never be the beauty of a painting itself that moves me, but rather the story behind the artist. Does this count as “liking art,” even if I don’t necessarily have an interest in the mechanics and technique of certain styles of art?

Xoxo,

Diana