Rendering 4 (Painting)

The article I’m going to analyze, is taken from The Telegraph and is entitled "Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901, Courtauld Gallery, review." It was published by Alastair Sooke on 19th February, 2013.

A lot of comments are carried here on Pablo Picasso’s works, displayed at the Courtauld Gallery in London as part of the exhibition named Paris 1901. The author begins his review with describing the artist’s self-portrait where, according to Alastair Sooke, the painter appears incandescent, a fireball of inspiration and cocksure ambition burning against a background as dark as outer space – and so he actually was, having illuminated the 20th century like a comet. By the way, it’s exactly because the canvas was painted in Paris in 1901, the whole exhibition was given that name.

Speaking of Picasso’s works of that period, occupying the first room at the Courtauld, there’s clear evidence that the artist was deeply influenced by contemporary French painters: swirling forms and sickly, ghoulish light of French Can-Can, for instance, recall the posters and paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. In addition, Picasso’s Dwarf-Dancer (La Nana) – a young dwarf wearing a tutu, irradiated by a light show of spectacular painterly effects – is surely an impudent riposte to Degas’s paintings of ballerinas.

In the second room of the gallery, however, it becomes evident to Mr. Sooke that later Picasso’s style began to coalesce into his so-called Blue Period. There’s every likelihood that the renowned artist changed the appearance of his paintings — moving away from energetic, broken brushwork even though this had won him admiring critical attention. Thus, this shift can strongly be sensed in a complex composition called The Blue Room, presenting a naked woman bathing in a bedroom: the mood of this painting is much more melancholic, that is quite unusual for the artist’s previous works. Speaking of the situation in whole, it’s necessary to note that Picasso developed this new look in the late summer of 1901, so that he favoured more monumental forms and extensive planes of colour. For instance, one of his most famous works, Absinthe Drinker, represents a woman who embraces herself with monstrously elongated arms and hands, like prey slowly being crushed to death by the pythonic coils of introspection and depression. There’s every reason to believe that in paintings of café drinkers like this Picasso was at last fashioning his own distinctive artistic identity.

In conclusion the author states that the narrative of this exhibition is one of the most exciting stories that can be told about the life of any major artist – of breakthrough, and suggests not missing the chance to visit it. As for me, I’m not fond of Picasso’s works, as well as all these experiments in the sphere of art; nevertheless, I would accept this offer if I were asked, as one should take every opportunity to get acquainted with famous painters’ works, no matter whether you like them or not.