Pablo Picasso in Cubism
Top 3 Facts About Picasso!
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. 🇪🇸
He had many artistic skills, such as painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpting.
Picasso created over 20,000 artworks in his lifetime! 🎨
©Popperfoto/Getty Images
What is Cubism?
Cubism is an art movement where artists would make a picture by splitting the image into lots of different sections and shapes. 🟡🔹🟪
The aim was to create a 3D image on a 2D canvas.
It created a new and interesting way of looking at a subject. Read more about cubism here https://www.art-k.co.uk/6-a-kids-guide-to-modern-art-movements/
©Pablo Picasso,
Girl with a Mandolin 1910
Museum of Modern Art, New York
©Pablo Picasso,
Woman With Pears, 1909
MoMA
©Pablo Picasso,
Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle, 1914
Tate – Lent by the National Gallery 1997
On long term loan
Paintings
Picasso’s paintings are displayed in galleries all over the world! 🌏
His cubism style varies and looks different in many paintings. But a similarity is that his subject is broken up into different shapes! 🎨
©Pablo Picasso,
Portrait de Dora Maar, 1937
Musée Picasso Paris
©Pablo Picasso,
Three Musicians, 1921
MoMA
©Pablo Picasso,
Bust of a Woman, 1944
© Succession Picasso/DACS 2020
Tate
©Pablo Picasso,
Guernica, 1937
The Museo Renia Sofía
Drawings
Picasso has many different artistic styles. He was most famous for his paintings but the world also love his drawings!
He has a very freestyle drawing style. Often his drawings are just one line – he would never take his pen off the paper. He also had quite a scribbly drawing style. 🖍
©Pablo Picasso,
Composition 1948
Tate
©Succession Picasso/DACS 2020
©Pablo Picasso,
The Bull, state VII, 1945
MoMa
Light Drawing
Light Drawing is a technique used with a camera that has settings to adjust what we call “long exposure.” 📷
What is Long Exposure?
When you take a photo on a camera, to take the photo, the camera blinks like your eye. When it blinks it takes the photo in good quality. On older cameras, you can keep the camera “eye” open for a long time, for example, 30 seconds! 🌟
When it is open for 30 seconds, it captures everything. So if you are in a dark room, and you wave a light in the air, the 30 second open camera eyes will remember the movement and when it “blinks” you have captured the drawing with the light. Look at the photos below to see how it looks! 💡
Pablo Picasso’s ‘Light Drawings’, 1949
image courtesy LIFE magazine – Gjon Mili
Fun Fact
Did you know that Picasso has 23 names: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. 
Your Go
Why not have a go at drawing a portrait in the style of Picasso? You could look at a photo of a person and instead of drawing realistically, try to break up the different elements into different shapes. So eyes could become rectangles and the ears could be triangles! 
If you have a go at drawing a Picasso portrait, we would love to see it! Email a photo to admin@art-k.co.uk
What next?
Do you want to know what comes before Cubism? Click here to read about Expressionism?
https://www.art-k.co.uk/6-a-kids-guide-to-modern-art-movements/
And click here for a book about Pablo Picasso!
