Final Exam- Museum Paper

Pablo Picasso
Bullfight Scene & Tragedy


Pablo Picasso a Spanish Artist, one of the most famous and successful artists of his time, career had spanned most of the twentieth century and had taken part in some of the most important art movements of the twentieth century(Laura Payne,6).During the twentieth century Pablo Picasso painted several paintings. I choose the “Bullfight Scene one of Picasso favorite, painted in 1901 and the ‘Tragedy’ painted in what Picasso called The Blue Period in 1903. Both of Pablo Picasso artworks were painted in Barcelona, Spain. Picasso used oil on cardboard canvas and oil on wood canvas and naturalistic style in order to create the “Bullfight and the “Tragedy”. In my final art project I will compare and contrast the two artworks by the use of elements of design and principles.



“Bullfight” was painted during the Modern Period, which spans from 1800 to 1945. The modern period consist of 145 years, beginning in 1800 to 1945. This period was driven by technological progress and characterized by rapid change of society (505).This artwork was painted in a Spanish Culture.



Bullfight was one of Picasso earlier painting after going to see a Bullfight with his dad, which influenced him to paint the Bullfight Scene. Realism has influenced this work. Realism is broadly, any art in which the goal is to portray forms in the natural work in a highly faithful manner. Specifically with Gustave Courbet, which fostered the idea the everyday people and events are fit subjects for important art (Getlein, 587). Picasso painted this artwork to show art in a different perspective. Impressionism has also influenced this artwork. Impressionism portrays the daily life, especially the leisure activities (Getlein, 584) and in this painting the activity show’s a bullfight between a bull and the matador (the man).



The theme of the art work is Human Experience and Art in Nature
(Getlein, 69, 74). As such art can be its own theme, with no other purpose than to give visual pleasure or to pose another answer to the ongoing question: What is art? (Getlein,76). The mood of the painting can be view by the following; excitement, the violence, and ultimate challenge of the life or death glowing from the canvas (Laura Payne, 16). Picasso use elements of design and principles to capture the eyes of the viewer by using primary colors. Primary colors are red, yellow, and blue are labeled with the numeral 1 they cannot be made by any mixture of other colors (Getlein, 95). Picasso placed a pile of dead horses at the bottom left corner of the painting to show the use of the principle emphasis in this artwork. Emphasis means that our attention is drawn more to certain parts of a composition than others (Getlein, 134). Picasso appears to use thin brush strokes to outline all the figures in the painting and naturalistic style which all the objects are clearly defined in the Bullfight Scene. In the painting the artist used color to show the negative shapes in the background. The images in the Bullfight are neither 2 –dimensional or 3-dimensional nor do the artwork has symmetrical or asymmetrical to show balance.



" Tragedy” is a painting which portrays human beings of destitute. Picasso painted this artwork in what he called The Blue Period which concentrated on images of poverty and emotional depression. (Getlein, 525).The Blue Period was when Picasso painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green. This painting was too painted in the Spanish culture.
The theme of this art is “Looking outward: The Here and Now. “ The Looking outward: The Here and Now is a theme which art does not always have to reach so high. Sometimes it is enough just to look, around ourselves and notice what our life is like here, now, in the place, at this time (Getlein, 64). Picasso used emphasis to support his theme by using the color blue and many elements of design and principles in this artwork. The artist purpose of the painting was to show how the lives of people can change by the blinking of and eye. The painting doesn’t tell us much about the people in the painting, but it lets us know the viewer that people in the painting are homeless. Picasso used size and placement to emphasize the figures of the man, the woman and the child in the painting. Picasso set the figures in the foreground so that their visual weights combine to form a single mass. Visual weights refers to the apparent “heaviness or lightness” of the forms arranges in a composition. (Getlein,125).



In the painting, the thin bare feet, shabby dressed figures are carefully drawn and the contours of their bodies reveal their thoughts. The painting was reflected by the expressionism movement. Expressionism is an art movement of the early 20th century, which claimed the right to distort visual appearances in order to express psychological or emotional states, especially the artist’s own personal feelings (Getlein, 583). The artist use naturalistic style to portray the visible world that emphasizes the objective appearances of the figures in the painting.



Picasso focus on the figures by the use of defined lines to distinguished them from the background. Picasso uses primary and secondary contour lines to express definition of the figures in the painting. The shapes of their bodies are noticeable to the naked eye of the viewer. To bring out the texture of the ground Picasso used a mixture of cool colors to make the ground appear soft and smooth. The artist also use light blue and dark blue colors to show their relative value between the sky and ocean. The mood of the painting is sad, because Picasso painted the Tragedy after the death of a friend. The images in the Tragedy are neither 2 –dimensional or 3-dimensional nor do the artwork has symmetrical or asymmetrical to show balance.



In comparing and contrasting the two artworks, you can say they both were painted by the same artist Pablo Picasso and were painted on the same canvas but one was painted on cardboard canvas in oil and the other painted in oil on wood canvas. Picasso painted the painting in the same century but the movement is different. My opinion of the two artworks is that Picasso was looking at art in two different perspectives when he painted them. This art class was fun and exciting, because I new nothing about art until I took this class this summer. So I can say I learned a lot from this class. This fall I will be taking an art class at Frostburg State University. I would like to thank you professor Brew for correcting my mistakes on my essays, I hope that this essay will be a joy to read and hopefully not that many mistakes.





Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. 8th ed. Boston Burr Ridge, IL, McGraw-Hill, 1988
Payne, Laura Essential Picasso. Bath BAI 1HE, UK, 1999
enwikipedia.org/wiki/picasso’s__Blue_Period.html
webexhibits.org/colorart/mood.html

http://www.nga.gove/feature/picasso/images/full/fig11.jpg
http://www.nga.gov/feature/picasso/images/small/tragdey.jpg
www.rentspain.com/cultur/picasso/picasso_blue_period.html