Picasso’s Two Portraits.

Picasso is well known for his abstract paintings from the cubism movement however this is only a small portion of his work. While visiting the MoMA it was clear that Pablo’s geometric abstract portraits and landscapes were extremely different than his other works. I decided to work with two paintings that were both portraits of women. With differing color schemes and compositions each painting depicts the woman in an intriguing way. I thought it was interesting how the two paintings were so different yet both projected this idea of youth and beauty onto the viewer.

In Woman Plaiting Her Hair (1906), Picasso uses a cooling blueish gray background to create a sense of peacefulness. The solitary woman in the center of the piece sits with a sense of longing on her face as she twists her hair. The warm tones of her skin radiate out of the canvas and fill the room in which she is hung. This painting was created during Picasso’s Black Period in which he incorporated a lot of styles from African art into his work. The face of the woman strongly resembles the shape and depth of the popular African masks with the eyes and nose protruding from the rest of the flat face. The face contrasts with the rest of the body. The body is created with many curves that give the the arms, torso and thighs a sense of three dimensional roundness and fullness. In the lower half of the portrait the woman’s legs are wrapped in a sheet. In the sheets creases the viewer can see some geometric shapes, some of which look fairly similar to the shapes that create the Girl with a Mandolin.

The Girl with a Mandolin (1910), is created with a variety of geometric shapes. Many of these shapes have varying highlighting and shadowing points as if many different viewpoints of the same object were brought together. The colors used to paint the body are very similar to the hues used in the background. This flattens the piece, blending the woman into the space behind her. When viewed from up close, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the subject and its surrounding areas. If the viewer steps backs and views the piece by trying to unfocus the eyes on particular aspects, the shapes and lines begin to connect. Picasso uses a few curved lines in this piece that contrast the rest of the blocky constructions. In this piece of art, the theme of youth and beauty is portrayed by the use of wavy done-up hair and rounded breasts.

Picasso used a variety of different styles and concepts as he moved through multiple modern art movements. His ability to create such a wide array of works truly shows his incredible talent and imagination. Because his works are so different in composition, there is plenty of contrasting information between pieces.

-Eli McClain