Pablo Picasso - Creativity and Art
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Spanish artist ,born in Málaga (pictured right)
Highly prolific (with 43,000 works)
His most famous painting is...
Guernica (1937), showing the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish
Civil War in 1936.
Why was he so creative?
1. Revolutionary
Everything he did (painting, ceramics, pottery and sculpture) was incredibly
inventive and original.
“Each time I had something to say, I said it in the way I felt was right”, he said.
He was a natural rebel, who:
- rejected old ways of thinking.
- continually experimented with new painting techniques (as shown by the different
stages or periods in his career, e.g. the Blue Period, and Cubist
Period).
An example of his Blue Period is pictured right - The Greedy Child (Le Gourmet), 1901.
2. Support and learning
Picasso learned from:
a) his parents
His father (also a painter, pictured right)
- gave him his own studio aged 15
- spent all his money to send his son to train in Paris in 1900.
He also adored his mother.
b) other great artists
Particularly:
“Bad artists copy. Great artists steal”, he said.
3. Concentration
He had the self-discipline to concentrate totally on his painting.
Guernica, like all his great paintings, was a result of weeks of intense work.
Thinking was very important to his art.
“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them”, he said.
4. Observation and experience
He had a wonderful ability to remember things and people.
He used this observation and his experiences to great effect in his
paintings.
For example, his Blue Period was sparked off by his best friend's suicide in Paris.
“The quality of a painter depends on the amount of past he carries with him”, he said.
5. Customer satisfaction
His art touched people’s hearts by making them understand their fears and
emotions.
So Guernica horrifically portrays the death and destruction of war.
His 1907 painting of five prostitutes (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, pictured below) menacingly
conveys female sexuality.
6. Spirituality and sense of beauty
Picasso:
- believed that great painting was touched by the hand of God (although he rejected the
Roman Catholic Church).
- was deeply influenced by his spiritual pursuit of beauty (which he never sacrificed for
money, even though wealth was extremely important to him).
- believed that art only exists in the present.
“When I’ve found something to express, I’ve done it without thinking of the past or of the future”, he said.
7. Love of art
He loved the creative thrill of artistic achievement.
“How do I suppose I could paint without enjoyment?”, he once asked.
8. Solitude and creative tension
He had to be alone to:
- get inside his paintings.
- find their beauty through the tension of different ideas
and emotions.
“I have to live my work, and that is impossible without solitude”, he said.
9. Order within chaos
Although his paintings may sometimes seem like a chaotic jigsaw, all their parts fit brilliantly
together to achieve their purpose.
For example, Guernica’s horrific images, see below (all distorted except for a dead baby) powerfully convey the
evils of war in its huge frame (7 m across and 4 m high).
10. Relaxation
Taking breaks during painting made him think more clearly and effectively.
Key quotes on creativity
Painting is a blind man’s profession. He paints not what he sees but what he feels.
I do not seek, I find.
Key quote on
innovation
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.
Key quote on
happiness
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday
life.
Key
quote on
change and business success
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It
leads to sterility.
Key quotes on
careers
Genius is personality with two pennies of
talent.
Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
Key quote on planning and
strategy
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe and upon which we
must vigorously act.
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