Talk:Picasso's Blue Period

Hélène Seckel

I wonder if Hélène Seckel's comments really carry enough logical weight to warrant inclusion. She says we must pay attention to chronology and then refers to location. Obviously Picasso could be emotionally effected from a distance. Further, the fact that Casegemas was not actually included in a painting until the fall, in no way negates Picasso's own statement that the mood of his work had already been influenced by his friend's death. ("The Burial of Casagemas" is not a blue painting. "La Vie" is. ) In short, I assert that Seckel's comments as quoted, do not assist in understanding the Blue Period, and suggest they be removed from this article. Perhaps what the article needs more, is a list of the paintings that belong to this period.Johnfingers (talk) 12:34, 29 April 2010 (UTC) Is it true that at the time of Casagemas' suicide, Picasso had broken off the friendship? Are we strictly correct in describing the event as the loss of a friend? Johnfingers (talk) 12:45, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

The writing was a bit disjointed; I've added (and removed) some material that I hope clarifies what I think is the point: the blue period didn't begin all at once in response to Casagemas' death. The quote seems worth retaining, as it prevents readers from drawing a false conclusion from Picasso's remark. Ewulp (talk) 20:05, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

colors

Black and blue are the best colors to dress in. If you see me in person, expect it. --Cyberman 00:57, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

^ what does that have to do with anything?

Doesn't anyone know something more about his blue period? Whas there something more then just the death of his friend? Did he feel guilty or something, cause i mean, who would let his friend kill himself because a girl rejects him... I mean come on!!! How pathetic is that?=Aniek M=

      Yes, he was living in poverty and was bored with the provincialism of Barcelona, and was not selling many paintings.  98.244.137.86 (talk) 13:52, 21 January 2023 (UTC)kolef98.244.137.86 (talk) 13:52, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Yeah I was hoping for more technical details/methods, because thats probably what my art teacher will expect for the essay I'm doing on Picasso =(, oh well I guess I'll try some other websites. (Anton) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.108.70.83 (talk) 13:51, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

New text

Copyright violation, original research or usable? Text needs references in order to be used. Until references are added I will leave this for a few hours before deleting...Modernist (talk) 20:43, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

In the year of 1902 Picasso was already in a position to create something new of his own, the series of works known as his Blue Period.Though the fundamentals of the Blue Period were evolved in Paris, Barcelona remained the center of Picasso's actual labours till he finally moved to the French capital in April 1904. His pictures, not merely melancholy but profoundly depressed and cheerless, inspired no affection in the public or in the buyers.It wasn't poverty that led him to paint the impoverished outsiders of society, but rather the fact that he painted them made him poor himself. Railway stations, cathedrals, boulevard life in Paris and night clubs and the gloom of drinkers, all appeared in his work.Picasso's Blue Period portrayals of beggars and prostitutes, workers and drinkers in bar, took up this line. Paris wasn't the sole influence of Picasso's Blue Period, Spanish culture played a considerable part too. The Barcelona literary and artistic circles Picasso moved were very interested in anarchism.Many of Picasso's works of 1899 and 1990 were influenced of anarchist literature.

The Absinthe Drinker, 1901 an emotionally arresting painting, draws its power from this.Everything seems stony, the glass, the bottle, the woman.Spatial values are produced less by perspective than by the overlapping of forms. It's clear and balanced composition, with lighter and darker of the tonalities. The tonality difference are so slight that the impression borders on the monochrome, serving solely to intensify the atmospheric charge.The long hands gripping the angular face and upper arm, that serve to emphasize the isolation of the sitter.

For Picasso confrontation with social reality was only a motivation, it wasn't an end in itself.For him it was more important to experiment, to try and test new visual approaches.In the Absinthe Drinker the subject isn't only the melancholy pub atmosphere and the dreariness of alcohol. The painting's meaning also lies in the autonomy of formal means. In Blue Period Picasso was working within a limited range: men and women seated at tables, alone or in twos people with head in hand or arms crossed- modest repertoire in variations, accounts Picasso's work. Picasso was a master of intensifying contrast and evocative effects.The color blue was important in the his experiments.It's melancholy mood was often discussed in theoretical writings on art and in literature at he time.Blue not only denotes melancholy, it also carriers erotic charges.It has a long tradition in Christian iconography, in which it stands for the divine.Since the first third of 19th century there had been a mania for blue,which peaked in 1826 in the tourist discovery of the Blue Grotto on Capri.