… seeing Picassos [2/3]

Sorry guys! I know some of you have been waiting for the next installment – my schedule has been pretty pack recently and I only found time to get this down because I’m sick now (thus, no partying/sports allowed)

We last left off at Picasso‘s famed Portrait of Dora Marr – turning around the corner in the gallery, we arrived at his politically inclined pieces:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4mzenS3XO1qk38c7o1_1280.jpg

Massacre In Korea – Picasso was particularly sensitive to the increasingly violent nature of  international political disputes. This painting depicts a number of females (some pregnant) about to be gunned down by fearsome machine like creatures. There is an obvious divide in the landscape. The women and children are in front of a collection of green hills whilst the opposition is backed by a flat, graying tundra.

Another famous war-piece was commissioned by the Spanish Gov’t: Guernica (wiki: The bombing of Guernica (April 26, 1937) was an aerial attack on the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths):

http://www.caribousmom.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/guernicamural.jpg

An extremely patriotic man, Picasso was especially dedicated to this project – which took about 40 days to complete (extremely fast for such a large piece) This mural extends 11 feet by 25.6 feet and was exhibited at the 1937 Word’s Fair in Paris. It helped raise awareness for the Spanish Civil War that was plaguing the country at the time.

I have been dismissive of Picasso’s sculptures of various instruments. They are brilliant, of course – but I failed to make personal connections with them. I did, however, marvel at this set of sculptures depicting beach goers (made from flat metal sheets Picasso scavenged) This is a case of a picture is worth a thousand words. For the life of me, I can’t find pictures of them on Google so it’s very difficult for me to talk about them w/out reference. I’ll try to find a photo and I’ll update this post then.

Here’s is Jacqueline, Picasso latter wife. I love the angles in the painting – she looks like Cleopatra!

I don’t have much to say about this one – I simply have this visceral reaction to it.

The last of this series should be up by the end of the week – Ciao~