实用艺术英语unit 4 C.pptVIP

Unit 4 Text C Pablo Picasso: from a Child Prodigy to an Utter Genius 1 Pablo Picasso, born in Spain, was a child prodigy who was recognized as such by his art-teacher father, who ably led him along. 2 He was a rebel from the start and, as a teenager, began to frequent the Barcelona cafes where intellectuals gathered. He soon went to Paris, the capital of art, and soaked up the works of Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Toulouse-Lautrec, whose sketchy style impressed him greatly. 3 Before he struck upon Cubism, Picasso went through a prodigious number of styles—realism, caricature. The Blue Period dates from 1901 to 1904 and is characterized by a predominantly blue palette and subjects focusing on outcasts, beggars, and prostitutes. This was when he also produced his first created painting in memory of a great childhood friend, the Spanish poet Casagemas, who had committed suicide. The painting started as a self-portrait, but Picasso’s features became those of his lost friend. The composition is stilted, the space compressed, the gestures stiff, and the tones predominantly blue. Yet another example, perhaps the most lyrical and mysterious ever, is the haunting Woman with a Crow (1903). 4 The Rose Period began around 1904 when Picasso’s palette brightened, the paintings dominated by pinks and beiges, light blues, and roses. His subjects are circus people, harlequins, and clowns, all of whom seem to be mute and strangely inactive. One of the premier works of this period is extremely beautiful Family of Saltimbanques dating to 1905, which portrays a group of circus workers who appear alienated and incapable of communicating with each other, set in a one-dimensional space. 5 In 1905, Picasso went briefly to Holland, and on his return to Paris, his works took on a classical aura with large make and female figures seen frontally or in distinct profile, almost like early. 6 Picasso discovered ancient Iberian sculpture from Spain, African art, and sculpture