GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM VENICE
Important artists and their paintings
PABLO PICASSO
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain in 1881. His father was an artist and art professor who gave Pablo art lessons. Picasso was not a good student. He often had to go to detention. He began painting when he was 9 years old. When he was 13, he moved from Malaga to Barcelona and was admitted to the School of Fine Arts there. Three years later, his father decided to send him to Madrid’s Royal Academy of San Fernando, Spain’s top art school. Picasso didn’t like formal instruction and soon stopped going to classes. He loved going to The Prado museum to see paintings by famous Spanish painters.
In 1900 Picasso went to Paris. He met many of the famous artists who lived in Paris.
He and Georges Braque invented Cubism. They painted figures that were made up of cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and other geometric shapes. Cubists wanted to show the most important parts of the things they painted. They wanted to show all the sides of an object in the same picture. Some cubist paintings were extremely abstract. At first, cubists used mostly brown, grey, and blue colours. Then colour entered the picture and some artists, like Picasso, began using more than just paint and canvas in their art. In fact, Picasso is also famous for his collages.
His style developed from the Blue Period to the Rose Period to the work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), and the evolution of Cubism.
Then his work was characterized by neoclassicism and by an interest in drawing. He created oil paintings, sculpture, drawings, stage designs, collage, and architecture. Picasso produced at least 50,000 works of art. He also wrote plays and poetry. He was very famous and he became very rich.
Then his work was characterized by neoclassicism and by an interest in drawing. He created oil paintings, sculpture, drawings, stage designs, collage, and architecture. Picasso produced at least 50,000 works of art. He also wrote plays and poetry. He was very famous and he became very rich.
In 1936 the Spanish Civil War profoundly affected Picasso, and he expressed himself in the painting Guernica. He entered the Communist Party in 1944.
Picasso was married twice and had four children: one of them, Paloma, is famous for her jewelry designs. He died in 1973 in Mougins, France.
Picasso was married twice and had four children: one of them, Paloma, is famous for her jewelry designs. He died in 1973 in Mougins, France.
On the Beach (La Baignade), 1937- Oil, conté crayon, and chalk on canvas, 129.1 x 194 cm
During the early months of 1937, Picasso was responding to the Spanish Civil War with the preparatory drawings for Guernica and other paintings on political subjects. However, in this period he also executed a group of works that don’t show his preoccupation with political events. The painting On the Beach, also known as Girls with a Toy Boat, was painted near Versailles, Paris. Here he uses steady, volumetric forms in a natural environment. This painting has got asimplified, planar style in the poses of the figures. Maybe the theme of playing on the beach was an alternative to the violent images of war he was working on in that period.
There are two preparatory drawings for this work. In one of them, the male figure that you see on the horizon has a sinister appearance. In the other drawing, as in this final version, his face is softened and neutralized to correspond with the two female figures.
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MAX ERNST
Max Ernst was born in Germany in 1891.
His father liked painting (as a hobby) but Ernst’s interest in art began only when he went to Bonn University in 1909. He studied psychology and philosophy. He began painting in 1910. In Cologne he saw the work of Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh. During the First World War, Ernst had to serve in the army. He didn’t like it. He was able to continue painting, and had an exhibition in 1916 in Berlin. After the war, he moved to Paris and there he turned to Surrealism. Surrealism began as a philosophical movement. It said that the way to find truth in the world was through the subconscious mind and dreams, rather than through logical thought.
During World War II, Ernst was twice sent to a concentration camp. The first time he was freed. The second time he had to escape. Peggy Guggenheim helped Ernst to safely reach the U.S.A.
During World War II, Ernst was twice sent to a concentration camp. The first time he was freed. The second time he had to escape. Peggy Guggenheim helped Ernst to safely reach the U.S.A.
He and Peggy got married but their relationship didn’t last long.
In New York, Ernst helped to bring about Abstract Expressionism – the art movement that included Jackson Pollock. This movement had an emotional intensity and was against figurative painting. It was art about the process of making art. Painters experimented with new techniques like dripping, spraying, staining, pouring and working on the floor.
After a period in the U.S.A., Ernst returned to France where he lived until his death in 1976.
The Forest (La Forêt), 1927–28, Oil on canvas
Under the influence of Surrealism, Ernst developed his “frottage” or rubbing technique.
In making his first frottages, he dropped pieces of paper at random on floor boards and rubbed them with pencil or chalk, thus transferring the design of the wood grain to the paper. He next adapted this technique to oil painting, scraping paint from prepared canvases laid over materials such as wire mesh, leaves, buttons, or twine. Using his “grattage” (scraping) technique, Ernst covered his canvases completely with pattern and then interpreted the images that emerged. The texture suggested him the composition in a spontaneous way. In The Forest the artist probably placed the canvas over a rough surface (perhaps wood), put oil paint over the canvas, and then rubbed, scraped, and overpainted the area of the trees. The subject of a dense forest appears often in Ernst’s work. These paintings generally contain a lot of trees, a solar disk, and an apparition of a bird in the leaves.
In making his first frottages, he dropped pieces of paper at random on floor boards and rubbed them with pencil or chalk, thus transferring the design of the wood grain to the paper. He next adapted this technique to oil painting, scraping paint from prepared canvases laid over materials such as wire mesh, leaves, buttons, or twine. Using his “grattage” (scraping) technique, Ernst covered his canvases completely with pattern and then interpreted the images that emerged. The texture suggested him the composition in a spontaneous way. In The Forest the artist probably placed the canvas over a rough surface (perhaps wood), put oil paint over the canvas, and then rubbed, scraped, and overpainted the area of the trees. The subject of a dense forest appears often in Ernst’s work. These paintings generally contain a lot of trees, a solar disk, and an apparition of a bird in the leaves.
ALEXANDER CALDER
Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1898. His parents were both artists. His father was a sculptor and his mother painted portraits. They weren’t rich and they didn’t want Alexander to be an artist, but he started making sculptures when he was four years old. Then he became interested in sculpture that moved. He followed his parents’ advice and studied engineering at the college, but he wasn’t happy in any of the jobs he had after college. So he decided to become an artist.
Calder’s first exhibition of paintings took place in 1926 in New York. Then he moved to Pariswhere he attended an Art Academy and began to build toys that moved. These toys became his own miniature circus. He packed his circus into suitcases and performed in the U.S.A. and in Europe. In 1927 he began giving performances of his miniature circus.
In 1928 he met Joan Miró, who became his lifelong friend.
Calder’s interest in movable art led him to create mobiles. Air currents caused the mobiles to move. Calder also created sculptures that didn’t move. He called them “stabiles.” Most of them were made out of painted wood or metal, and some of them were very big.
Calder became famous and spent his last years in France with his wife. He died in 1976. If babies all over the world have a mobile with small, coloured toys suspended over their bed, it’s thanks to Alexander Calder.
Calder’s first exhibition of paintings took place in 1926 in New York. Then he moved to Pariswhere he attended an Art Academy and began to build toys that moved. These toys became his own miniature circus. He packed his circus into suitcases and performed in the U.S.A. and in Europe. In 1927 he began giving performances of his miniature circus.
In 1928 he met Joan Miró, who became his lifelong friend.
Calder’s interest in movable art led him to create mobiles. Air currents caused the mobiles to move. Calder also created sculptures that didn’t move. He called them “stabiles.” Most of them were made out of painted wood or metal, and some of them were very big.
Calder became famous and spent his last years in France with his wife. He died in 1976. If babies all over the world have a mobile with small, coloured toys suspended over their bed, it’s thanks to Alexander Calder.
Arc of Petals, 1941, Painted aluminum, approximately 214 cm high
During the early 1930s, he created sculptures in which the balanced components move. They are sometimes moved by motor or sometimes by the action of air currents. They can be suspended or freestanding. They generally consist of flat pieces of painted metal connected by wire and stems. Their shapes recall the natural forms of the Surrealist painting and sculpture. Calder cut, bent, punctured, and twisted his materials entirely by hand. Shape, size, color, space, and movement combine and recombine in relationships that are inspired by the harmonious activity of nature. The present mobile is organized as an antigravitational cascade, in which large and heavy shapes sway serenely at the top, while small and agitated shapes move below.
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RENE’ MAGRITTE
René Magritte was born in Belgium in 1898.
Magritte did not enjoy school, but he knew he wanted to paint, so he went to the Academie dex Beaux-Arts in Brussels to study art. He tried cubism and futurism but they didn’t become his style. Instead, he painted in the Surrealiststyle.
After military service, he worked as a designer in a wallpaper factory. In 1927 he went to live near Paris, where he frequented the Surrealist circle, which included Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró. Magritte didn’t have an immediate success. Critics did not like his artwork. After three years in Paris he disliked the other Surrealists so much that he went back to Belgium and burned everything that reminded him the Surrealists. He continued to paint in the Surrealist style and became more popular. He had exhibitions in New York and in England. He wanted people to look at ordinary things in different ways. He sometimes painted objects in places where they didn’t usually belong.
From 1953 he exhibited frequently in the U.S.A. and in Europe. In 1965 Magritte travelled to the United States for the first time, and the following year he visited Israel. Magritte died in 1967, in Brussels.
Empire of Light (L'Empire des lumières), 1953–54. Oil on canvas.
In Empire of Light, a dark, nocturnal street scene is set against a clear, blue sky spotted with some clouds. With this fantastic element, the paradoxical combination of day and night, René Magritte upsets normal life. Sunlight, usually the source of light, here causes the confusion and unease traditionally associated with darkness. The luminosity of the sky makes the darkness below even more impenetrable than in a normal context. The bizarre subject is treated in an impersonal, precise style, typical of veristic Surrealist painting and preferred by Magritte since the mid-1920s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr3oDz7CDMo
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRlpD-iEnMQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr3oDz7CDMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4oSyhr37xc
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JACKSON POLLOCK
Jackson Pollock was born in 1912 in Wyoming, USA. In 1928 he began to study painting in Los Angeles, then he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League. He had many jobs but never had enough money, so in 1943 Peggy Guggenheim gave him a contract that lasted four years, so he could spend all his time painting. In this period, Pollock’s work reflected the influence of Pablo Picasso and Surrealism. By the mid-40s, Pollock painted in a completely abstract and different way. He painted in a shed where he could lay his canvas on the floor, and drip and splatter paint across it.
He didn’t want to paint a landscape or a portrait: Pollock wanted to paint action. When you look at one of his drip paintings, your eyes wander across the entire canvas in constant motion. In this way, Pollock achieved his goal; the creation of the painting was active and so is the viewing of the painting.
To do his drip paintings, Pollock didn’t buy his oil paint in tubes: he used big cans of house paint to cover the canvas. He used sticks, trowels, or knives to drip and splatter paint, or poured paint directly from the can. He put into action the Surrealist notions of the subconscious and automatic painting. Pollock’s drips were called “action paintings,” and contributed to the development of Abstract Expressionism.
He didn’t want to paint a landscape or a portrait: Pollock wanted to paint action. When you look at one of his drip paintings, your eyes wander across the entire canvas in constant motion. In this way, Pollock achieved his goal; the creation of the painting was active and so is the viewing of the painting.
To do his drip paintings, Pollock didn’t buy his oil paint in tubes: he used big cans of house paint to cover the canvas. He used sticks, trowels, or knives to drip and splatter paint, or poured paint directly from the can. He put into action the Surrealist notions of the subconscious and automatic painting. Pollock’s drips were called “action paintings,” and contributed to the development of Abstract Expressionism.
Peggy Guggenheim organized his first European solo exhibition at the Museo Correr, Venice, in 1950. Then he had shows in Paris and in the USA. His work was known and exhibited internationally, but the artist never travelled outside the United States. He was killed in a car accident in 1956.
Enchanted Forest, 1947. Oil on canvas.
Enchanted Forest is an example of Jackson Pollock’s abstract compositions created by the pouring, dripping, and splattering of paint on large, unstretched canvases. In this painting, Pollock leaves large areas of white in the network of moving, expanding lines. He also decides to use only gold, black, red, and white. He creates a delicate balance of form and colour through rhythms of lines that move into continuous, lyrical motion. One’s eye follows the lines of colour without being arrested by any dominant focus. Rather than describing a form, Pollock’s line becomes continuous form. In Pollock’s drip paintings, his lines shows the freedom from describing contours and bounding shapes.
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Questionnaire
1. When and where was Pablo Picasso born and when did he die? 2. How was Picasso as a child and a young student? 3. What did Picasso do when he lived in Paris? 4. How can you describe the artistic current of Cubism? 5. How did Picasso’s style evolve? 6. What was his production as an artist? 8. What is the painting On the Beach about? 9. What element of Cubism can you see in this painting? 10. How is it different from its preparatory drawings? 11. When and where was Max Ernst born and when did he die? 12. What were his interests at University? 13. What did he do during World War I? 14. What was Surrealism? 15. What happened to him during World War II? 16. What was Abstract Expressionism? 17. How did he do his “frottages” and “grattages”? 18. What can you see in the painting The Forest? 19. Is this his only painting about this subject? 20. Describe your feelings about this painting. 21. When and where was Alexander Calder born and when did he die? 22. What was his passion when he was a child? 23. What did he do during and soon after university? 24. Where did he begin to build his toys? 25. Talk about his miniature circus. | 26. What’s the difference between a “mobile” and a “stabile”? 27. How did Calder build Arc Of Petals? 28. Where did he take inspiration to build this mobile? 29. What does it represent? 30. Do you think it is easy to build a mobile? Why? 31. When and where was René Magritte born and when did he die? 32. What did he study at school? 33. What was his job after military service? 34. What did he do in Paris? 35. What happened when he came back to Belgium? 37. Describe Empire of Light. 38. What’s the paradoxical element in this painting? 39. Talk about the contrast between light and darkness in this painting. 40. Do you like this painting? Why? 41. When and where was Jackson Pollock born and when did he die? 42. Where did he study art? 43. How did Peggy Guggenheim help him? 44. How did his style change in the mid-40s? 45. Where and how did he paint? 46. What did he want to paint? 47. Why you can say that his art belongs to Abstract Expressionism? 48. What is “action painting”? 49. Describe the painting Enchanted Forest. 50. How is it different from Max Ernst’s forest? |
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