Comments on: Feel Art Again: Picasso’s “First Communion”

By: Brianna

Brianna — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:23:00 +0000

I’m sure this is off somehow but is there anyway there could be blogs on poets and writers?? I’m sure this is about visual art but when I was in a Creative writing class (I hate English but excelled in this class) my professor-teacher(he was a high school teacher and college professor) said that writing was art that like a visual artist you display a passion and want others to understand; however; unlike an artist you have to emphasis more and be creative to attract attention with words. And with some of the finest poets/writers I would like to see that and share that with other “Creative writers”

By: CropTillDawn

CropTillDawn — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:50:42 +0000

Whenever I take my engineer Hubby to art museums he always makes faces and says,”I just don’t get it.” ,when we get to any Abstract art. I tell him that most of them were trained traditionally in art.
I was at the Phillips Museum in DC last week at I saw an early Jackson Pollock.
I wish my Hubby was there to see it. This other gentleman stopped and was very surprised to see that Pollock could paint “normal”. I commented,”Not what you expected from Jackson Pollock, is it?” and smiled :)
Personally I think things shifted when photography became popular. You did not have to paint exactly what you saw in front of you. A photo could just be taken if you wanted a portrait or landscape.
Of course the radical artists ran with a crowd full of social deviates like actors, writes and ladies of ill repute.
They were trying to do something different.

By: Andréa

Andréa — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:40:51 +0000

witera33it: Usually, we only do pre-1900 works, to avoid any copyright problems. (Guernica was painted in 1937.) I’ll check, though, and see if we might be able to cover it.

By: witera33it

witera33it — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:48:13 +0000

Is Guernica a dumbing down of the devastation of war in Spain? Can we do a follow up with Guernica?

By: John Charles Heiser

John Charles Heiser — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:20:47 +0000

It looks more like his father’s work to me. He was also one of the great bullshitters of the 20th century, so don’t forget the shovel. He, like Dali, signed thousands of sheets of blank paper, for a price of course, traded doodles for afternoons of drinking and dining with his entourage. Anything Picasso said, should be taken with plenty of salt. I admit to admiring SOME of his work, how much of a genius he truly was is debatable. He was talented, and certainly did some great pieces…BUT, public relations never hurt him.

By: Therese

Therese — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:04:39 +0000

Wow, this is fascinating! Maybe now I like Picasso… never did before. I’m not sure I agree with Sid that he dumbed down his style in order to produce more. I think that geniuses often need to push the proverbial envelope, and Picasso was such a genius that he “pushed” early on and never returned to the traditional genres. Unfortunate for those of us who value the rich beauty of more traditional art such as this piece, but probably a compulsion that the artist/genius couldn’t much control.

By: Larriann

Larriann — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:50:00 +0000

This is a great series. A survey Art History course taught by a good professor can teach about so much more than just the physical pieces of art. I’ve learned more about the intricacies of world history through my art history classes than I ever did with the more standard history classes. Maybe it was because the art gave me something to focus on?

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:06:30 +0000

Good job on the series!

As “A.Non.E.Mous” notes, yes, Picasso actually could paint! His early work like this is quite beautiful, and it’s evident he had talent, a whole lot of it in fact. What’s sad to me is that as his career (and fame) progressed, he morphed into knocking out piles and piles of crap by the truckload.

Yeah styles changed, and he was exploring other media, pushing the limits, and all that, but to my unsophisticated palate he was was merely dumbing down his creations so he could knock them out faster. His ripped up newspaper “synthetic cubism” collages tell the story pretty well. Compare those with this painting. If he kept painting works like this, he would have been a whole lot less prolific of course, and it would have been tougher to support his many young girlfriends :-)

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:14:28 +0000

As always, great post! He started this at age 14??? It would have been incredibly depressing to have middle school art with him.

When my wife and I were in Venice earlier this year, there was a traveling Picasso exhibit at one of the museums there. I’ve always enjoyed seeing how artists’ styles evolved over their careers, and Picasso’s evolution is the most fascinating I’ve seen to date. Keep up the good work!

By: Katie B.

Katie B. — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:31:24 +0000

Picasso’s “Guernica” also has some great history behind it.