Art Appreciation: Picasso: Myth and Reality

Picasso is one of the giants of 20th--century art. A child prodigy, he is mainly known as a painter, but he also created a significant body of sculptures, prints, and ceramics. He was an extraordinary artist, constantly transforming his style yet remaining himself. He also had a complex and troubled personality. This course takes an in-depth approach to Picasso’s life, career, and art: - the early years in Spain, - the Blue and Rose periods, - the Cubist experiments with Braque, - the return to classicism and dialogue with Diaghilev’s Ballets russes - the dialogue with Surrealism - the creation of Guernica and the war years in occupied Paris - the experiments with pottery in Vallauris As we study different moments of his career, we will come back on Picasso’s difficult personal life and see how it affected his artistic endeavours. Beyond the personal dimension, we will also place his art in the historical and artistic context of its time, such as the social unrest of Barcelona in the 1890s, the rise of fascism and World War Two, and the Cold War.

Picasso was a fascinating artist, the prototype of the creative mind, turning anything into a work of art. In his hands a bicycle seat and handle could become a bull’s head. As we look at the notion of “genius” with a critical eye, we will see that Picasso often created in dialogue with others, rather than in complete isolation