wellfareartclassroom.weebly.com€¦  · Web view1897Photo of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) at age 16....

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Transcript of wellfareartclassroom.weebly.com€¦  · Web view1897Photo of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) at age 16....

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Photo of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) at age 16.

Maurice R. Robinson, founder ofScholaSlk, Inc., 1895-1982

FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Di,ecto, J.CARTER llROWNHead, Department of

Educational Resources RUTH R. PERLIN

Self-ortrait. Oil,32'.' x 24". Musee Picasso,Pans.

Self-Portrait with Palette.(detailon cover). Oil.36" x 29".

Phi adelphia Museum of Art.

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President, Chief Execurh·c OHice r, Chairman of 1he Board, and

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2 ART & MANStudent witha Pipe. Oil,charcoal,pasted paper,sand.28 3/4" x 23".

Museum of Modern Art , NY,NY.

190

Woman's Head with Self-Portrait.Oil. 28" x 24". Private Collection. 192

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Self-Portrait. Oil,20"x 18". National Gallery ,Prague.

Man with Violin. Oil,39 1/2" x 30". Philadelphia Museum of Art .

How couldone artist paint his ownface in so many different ways ?

When you look at the works on these two pages, you might think they were done by a number of artists. How many different styles of art do you see?

In fact, they were all done by 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso during a career that lasted more than 70 years. No artist has affected modem art more. The thousands of masterpieces he created changed the way people thought about art. Picasso was perhaps the most talented, and successful artist who ever lived.

Pablo Ruiz (Roo-ESS) Picasso was born in 1881 in a small town on the southern coast of Spain. His father was a painter who taught art. Picasso showed exceptional talent at an early age and by the time he was in his teens, painted better than his father or any of the local art teachers. At 16, Picasso was sent to the Royal Acade my of Madrid, where students drew from plaster casts and copied works of the old masters. Picasso felt these assignments were pointless and began to work on his own. Picasso's father soon became angry with his son's rebellious behavior, long hair, and strange clothes. He believed that Pablo was wasting his talent and scolded him: "Why don't you cut your hair and paint sensibly?"

In 1900, Picasso left for Paris-then the center of the art world. He lived in a cold, rundown building painting constantly, sometimes surviving for days on only a piece of bread. During these years, his art reflected his dismal surroundings. Home less outcasts were the subjects of many of his fairly realistic early paintings. After seeing African masks and sculptures, his works became more simplified and angular leading up to the revolutionary new style known as Cubism.

Picasso didn't sell much of his work during these early years. But he worked con tinuously, always experimenting with different styles of paint ing. Though Picassolived to be 92 and became the most famous artist in the world, he spoke of his

Man with an Ice Cream Cone. Oil. 24"x 18". Musee Picasso.Paris.

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youthful days in Paris as "the happiest time in my life."

ART & MAN 3

A New Way ofEEING

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who lived in Paris at the beginning of this century. Her apartment became a gather, ing place for writers, musicians, and artists-including Pablo Picasso.

"Pictures commenced to want to leave their frames and this created the necessity for Cubism"-GERTRUDE STEIN

Gertrude Stein, 1906. Oil.39 1/4" x 32". Metropolitan Museum of Art,NY., NY.

These three images changed the w ay we see the world today.

In 1905, Picasso began working on a portrait of Stein (left). She sat for more than 80 ses sions while he worked on it.

By the autumn of 1906, Picasso still wasn'tsatisfied with Stein's portrait. Recalling an ex hibition of ancient Spanish sculpture he had seen earlier that year, Picasso began to paint over the face without having Gertrude Stein pose for it again. He gave her face the same mysterious masklike, sculptural qualities he had felt when he saw the ancient sculptures. Stein's face became angular and geometric, with a long, straight nose and simplified eyes and brows-suggesting perhaps a goddess or high priestess. It has been said that this por trait of Gertrude Stein captures the basic strength and power of her personality and writing better than any realistic likeness ever could have.

In 1907, Picasso had begun to do a painting of a group of figures, when he made a visit to an exhibition of African art. It was the first time he had seen African masks and sculp tures (like the one shown above right), and he later said the sight caused him to have a "rev elation"-an astonishing discovery. He re turned to his studio and worked furiously, in corporating the images he had ju st seen.

Compare the detail from Picasso's painting Desmoiselles d'Avignon ( Dam-wa-ZEL

DAV-in yon-Women of Avignon , right) with the African mask. Both are simplified,

stylized, flat, and geometric. In his painting, Picasso did away with modeling and

natural curves straight lines form angular, overlapping planes. Faces are seen

from many points of view-eyes are seen from the front on profiles; noses are shown

from the side on frontal faces. Since Picasso was able to draw and paint so realistically, why did he begin working in this strange

way? At the beginning of this century, new discoveries in science and technology

4 ART & MAN

were changing the way artists, writers, and musicians saw the world. The art of other cul tures-Africa, Japan-was being "discovered." The earlier invention of photography made realistic painting nearly "obsolete." Images far more realistic than anything drawn or painted "by hand" could be created by anyone skilled enough to focus a camera and click the shut ter. In the 20th century, "reality" would have to be expressed in new ways.

When he created this painting, Picasso was searching for a way to represent real objects on a flat canvas. He wanted to show figures as they really exist in their surrounding space from many viewpoints that constantly change. His breaking up of natural forms into tilting, shifting planes and geometric shapes was the beginning of a new style of art called Cubism. Demoiselles D'Avignon can't be read as a paint ed replica of the external world. It is one of the first modem paintings to prov ide a new kind of visual experience.

The African mask above inspired the faces in the detail (right) of this Picasso painting.

Top:African mask, ltumba region.Wood. 14" high. Museum of

Modern Art,NY.,NY.

Right: Les Demoisel/es d'Avignon, (detail). 1907.Oil.

8' x 7'8". Museum of Modern Art,NY., NY. ART & MAN 5

How and why did Picasso create one of the most famo uspaintings of this century?

Compare this painting to the one on pages 8-9. How are the two similar? How are they different?

6 ART & MAN

Three Musicians, 1921. Oil. 6'7" x 7'3 3/4". Museum of Modern Art, NY.• NY.

M A S T E R P I E C E

O F T H E M O N T H

IST ING

As you've seen, Picasso wanted to get as close to reality as possible. He felt the only way to represent a real object on a flat canvas was to create a painting that would show every side of the object. Ifhe tookeach point of view, emphasized the main geo, metric shapes, and spread all these points of view out on the canvas, he would have a total picture of the object he was representing. The image wou ld unfold and the viewer would be able to know everything there was to know about the subject.

With this Cubist style, objects became sobroken up they were almost unrecognizable. (Can you find a Cubist portrait like this on

the musicians. The jagged contours and sud, den changes of value and hue might suggest musical sounds. The small objects and the tiny hands of the players emphasize the large scale of the composition. The dark, somber colors, and austere frontality of the huge masked fig ures convey a feeling of mystery. After Three M usicians, Picasso went on to develop other styles. But these two works seem to sum up the concepts of Cubism.

How does this drawing of two musicians relate to the paintings onthe left and on the next pages?

Pierrot and Harlequin, 1918. Pencil. 10 1/4" x 8 1/2". Private Collect ion.

page 3?) In his later Cubist paintings, Picasso began to combine several points of view of the object and to overlap them. This tech nique expressed the idea of an object, rather than any one view of it. It led to the develop ment of abstract or non-representational art later in the 20th century.

Picasso was interested in all forms of art and in 1917, he began to design scenery and cos tumes for dance performances. Characters from the theatre were also the subjects of many of his works. The penci l drawing on the right is a realistic depiction of two comic fig ures that Picasso often used in many of his Cubist paintings. In this sketch, they are clowns who play musical instruments.

In two of his most famous pa intings,

done several years later, Picasso has transformed these two figures into Three M usicians (one version is shown on the opposite page; anoth er on pages 8-9). In both paint ings, the two figures at the left, play musical instruments while a hooded monk on the right sings. All three figures are made up of angular, geomet, ric shapes. The figures appear flat, with little modeling or sense of space. The artist has framed each composition with a series of brown planes, creating a shallow "room" for

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ART & MAN 7

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U S C H O L A S T I C A N EW ARTIST

FOR A N EW CENTU RY"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should Ipaint pictures that do?" -Pablo Picasso

This self-portrait marks one of Picasso's early experiments with simplifying the forms of the face.

C-r. Pablo Picosso (1881-1973).Self·Ptlrlraff,1906.Oil oncanm mounted on wood. IO 1/217314 in. Jacques and Natasha Gttman Cofttc· tion. 1998(1999.363.59).Photo: Malcolm Varon.The Melropolltan Museum of Art, New Yo,lc, NY,U.S.A. Photo Credit Image copyrigtll Cl The Melropoli lan Musa,mof Art IArt Resour«, NY. 02009 Eslale of Pablo Picosso I Artisls Rigllls Society (AAS),New YO<t.

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POSTAL INFORMATI ONScholastlc Art® (ISSN 1060-BJZX; inC.nada,2 c no.55867) Ispublished

... "Why shouldthe artist persist in treating subjects that can be established so clearly with the lens of a cam era?" -Pablo Picasso

hen you compare the draw ing on the top of the opposite page with the painting below

it, it's hard to believe that they were cre ated by the same artist. Pablo Picasso made the pastel drawing in 1896,when he was 15. It is a highly traditional, realistic portrait of his mother seen in profile.

The painting below it, a head study, barely registers as a human face. It is simplified and abstracted, with shifting viewpoints. Staring eyes shown from a frontal view loom over a nose, mouth, and chin shown from the side and facing in opposite directions. By 197 1, when this work was created, Pablo Picasso was the most famous artist in the world, and his work had revolutionized art.

Born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso grew up in a modern age full of new ideas and theories. In 1899, Sig mund Freud, the father of psychology, began publishing books that opened up the hidden world of the humanmind . Six years later, Albert Einstein's scientific theo

six timts during the school yu,, Sepl/Od., NO¥.DecJJan. Feb.. Mat. Ap,rJMzt,by Scholastic Inc. Office of Publication: 2931E. Mcta,1y Street

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Photograph of Picosso with W-tcionado. Sorgues. 1912.DP22;AP PH 2861.Photo: CoursagelMuSM Picasso. Paris, france. RN.Inion des Mus&s NationaUJ: IArt Re· source.NY.Cl 2009 Eslaleof Pablo Picosso I Artists Rigllls Society CARS).New YO<t.

Each man in his own way seemed to be saying that real ity looks different from different points of view.

At the same time, new technologies were making

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painters question the point of realistic art. Why paint what you see when youcan reproduce it more easily with a photograph or 11> "Who sees the human face movie? What could painting offer that photogra- correctly: the photographer, phy could not? the mirror,or the painte?"

-Pablo PicassoWhile the art world was searching for answers

Hua,S..nd,y.1971(October 3). Oil on canva 73 x 60

SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC ART.and auoculed deslgm are tndemarbl"llslered tr>demarts of Scholastlc Inc.

Printed in U.S.A.2 SCHOLASTICART •2009 to these questions, Picasso was learning

the techniques of traditional drawing and

painting. An un- cm. Musee Picasso,Paris /The Bridgeman Art Library.©2009 Eslate of Pablo Picosso I Art ts Rigllts Society(AR5), New YO<t.

usually gifted child , Pablo could draw even before he could walk

ll>- Picasso drew this pastel portrait of his mother when he was 15.

or talk. His father, Don Jose, was a painter who created real- MPa,sntaefl>oi<nassotopo,.t1>oArtistsMBoat1n>:eelton.a18, 96.

paper. M.,..,Piemo, Spain.

istic, decorative works. By the :;1;' " =.,'/.C1

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time Pablo was 9, he was paint- Soae1y <ARS>.NewYort.

ing alongside his father. One day, Pablo finished a paint ing so perfectly that Don Jose handed over his brushes and swore never to paint again.

But Don Jose continued to teach. In 1895 he moved his family to Barcelona so thatne could teach at the Academy of Fine Arts. At 14, Pablo was considered too young forthe Academy but was allowed to take the entrance exam, a series of difficult exercises that took most applicants a month to complete. Pablo completed them in one day astonishing the professors-and was admitted.

Around this time, Pablo drew the pastel portrait of his mother, Maria (right), in the traditional style taught at the Academy. In this portrait, Picasso uses modeling and shading to create the illusion of form. He creates realistic color and a range of shadows, mid-tones, and

highlights by blending dark and light-colored pastels. The billowy, organic shapes of the figure make it seem soft and comforting.

In spite of his gifts, or maybe because of them, Pablo became bored with the rigid rules of the academy and looked for ways to broaden his horizons. Soon he would get his chance.

The year was 1900, the start of a new century, and Picasso was 19. He had traveled to Paris to show a paint ing at the World's Fair, a giant exhibition where 50 mil lion visitors flocked to see the latest achievements in technology and culture from all over the world. There, for the first time, visitors could watch a movie and hearthe actors speak instead of having to read the dialogue on the screen. They could take a virtual balloon ride, watch the sky through a giant telescope, and stroll through a massive exhibition hall where Picasso's work hung among more than 5,000 paintings from 29 countries.

Filled with curiosity, Picasso eagerly took in all the city had to offer. He combed through museums and galleriesto study Impressionist paintings, Egyptian art, and Japa nese prints. He frequented the city's cafes and nightclubs, where artists and intellectuals gathered to share ideas.When Picasso finally moved to Paris, his passion for learning and discovery helped him build the foundation for his own revolution in art.

MARCH 2009 • SCHOLASTIC ART 3

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THE CuBlsTREVOLUTION

"I paint objects·as I think them, not as I see them." -Pablo Picasso

hen Picasso moved to Paris in 1904, he was

already well known and respected for his painting, drawing, graphic art, and sculpture. But he felt stifled by traditional realism. He wanted more freedom, and a more imaginative way to express himself.

In the self-portrait on the cover, Picasso experiments with heavy black lines, using them to outline the formsof his face. But it was not until 1907, when he visited a museum of non-Western art in Paris, that he found the inspiration that led him to invent Cubism.

It was there that he first saw African masks like the one on page 10. He was fascinated with the way these masks simplified forms and divided them into flat planes. The masks also showed Picasso a fresh wayto think about art. Instead oftrying to create realistic cop

I ies of faces, the artists who made these masks interpreted what they saw. They d istorted facial features to express emotions and qualities like humor or fierceness. Picasso

he saw not with his eyes but with his mind. In the study of

• Inwhat ways does this woman's face resemble the African mask on page 10?

called African art an "art of reason" because he thought a woman's head seen above, African artists depicted not what they saw, but what they thought and felt.

African masks had an immediate influence on Pica sso's work. He too wanted to make art that showed what

4 SCHOLASTIC ART • 2009

Picasso has simplified the complex structure of a wom an's face into basic geometric forms. Her face has become

Bustd a-studylo,ll<m<lisf,les o,;g,,o,,. fr,nc.e, 1907.Oil onunvu•.660 m 1.590m. MUSH Nat"""I d'Art Modtmt.Ctotre Gtoties Pompidou. Paris.Franct.Photo Credit CNAC I MNAM IDisl Rlurion dos Musees Nationata IAri Resoortt.NY. 2009 E.sbte of Pablo Pluuo / Artists Rights Society (ARS).New Yook.

<111 "Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"

-Pablo PicassoMan witha Vd" in, 191J.1912. Oion canva 39318x 28 ll/J6 in.The i.u;s. and Wolter Amlsbofg Cdlection.1950. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphl,, Pennsytvanlo,U.S.A. Photo Credit The Phi1adelphl, MUS<Lmof Ari IAri Resou,u, HY.02009 Estate of Pablo Picasso I Artists Rigt,ts Society (ARS), New Yori<.

made out: an ear seen from the side,a mouth seen from the front, and a vio lin seen from different angles. Other elements could represent a chin, nose, or eyes seen from many points of view. He limited his palette to dark, dull col ors to focus the viewer's attention on the shapes and composition.

Picasso worked in this style for sev eral years. But he eventually realized that his subjects were becoming overanalyzed, his compositions too complex, and all of his paintings were beginning to look the same. He then began topaste fragments of real objects onto his paintings and drawings-scraps of wall paper, old postcards, even sprinklingsof sand. Man Witha Hat (below) has arefreshingly childlike quality. Made with simple shapes cut from colored paperand scraps of newspaper, it was Picasso's next new contribution to art-oneof the first collages ever created.

an oval, and her nose has become a triangle that ju ts out much like the nose of the African mask on page 10.

Picasso's next step went beyond simplification. Tradi tional art shows its subjects from a single point of view . An artist drawing a model in profile knows the model has two ears, even though only one ear is visible. With Cub ism, Picasso sought to create art that depicted objects ashe knew them to be, showing all of their sides at once. To do this, he combined fragments of different points of view into a single image.

In Man Witha Violin (above), Picasso painted a jumbl e of overlapping, translucent planes that he tilted andshif ted to make them intersect at random angles. The subject is almost unrecognizable, but a few details can be

11> Working with collage allowed Picasso to quickly test different com· positions by shifting paper around.Man witha Hat,after December J, 1912. Pasted paper,charcoal and ink on paper,24 112 x 18!i/11 in.""'"""·(274.1937) TheMuseum of Modem Art. NewYort. NY,U.S.A. Photo C,edit: Digital mage (c) The Muse,m of Modtm Ari I Licensed by SCAlA/ ArlR.....,..,HY.02009 Estate of Pablo Pica· sso I Art sts Rights Society (ARS),NewYori<.

MARCH 2009 • SCHOLASTIC ART 5-, ! IA a "1 I• :i .Ji.,' . ..

P

CUBISM COMESFULL CIRCLE"You can try anything in painting.

You even have a right to, provided you never do it again." -Pablo Picasso

icasso became fascinated with dance and theater in 1917, when he was invited to design sets andcostumes for the Ballet Russes (ba-LEY roos)-the

most important dance company of the day. Picasso hated being tied down to any one style. Working in another medium gave him a chance to experiment with new techniques. Collage had also opened up a world of new possibilities. The flatness of the cut-out shapes inspired Picasso to simplify his compost ions. The bright colors and pattern s of different kinds of paper inspired him to rein-

.& "You work with few colors. But they seem like a lot more when each one is in the right place." -Pablo Picassol'lvff Musicians.Fonulntblf.lu , 192L Oiloo UIMS,6' r •T 3l/4'.Mn.Simon Guggtoh<im fund.(55.1949) The MustUm ol Modtrn Art,New Yor11. NY, U.S.A. Photo Crecft: Oigjbl lmqo C>The M""""'ol Modtrn AnJU«ns«l by SCALA / Art Rtiotlrct.NY. C> 2009 £suit of Pablo Picasso I Artists Rislrts Society (ARS). New Yort.

... "Different motives inevitably require differ ent methods of expression." -Pablo PicassoWtf9"11-Jfrmmt en plft,ni 1937.Oil on "'"""60.8• 50.0cm.. ht,Gallery, London, Grut Britain. Photo Cre<frt: Tate.London I Art Rtseurct, NY. < 2009 Esbtt of Pablo Picasso I Art ts Riitits Society (ARS). New Yo,k.

6 SCHOLASTIC ART • 2009

troduce color and pattern into his paintings.Pie1 ot and Harlequin (pye-RO and HAR-luh-quin)

(pages 8-9), which Picasso painted in 1920, and Three M usicians (left), painted in 1921, show the influence ofworking with both the Ballet Russes and collage. In both paintings, Pierrot and Harlequin, traditional theater char acters, are seen from a frontal point of view and placedin spaces that resemble a shallow stage set. Like Picasso's collages, these paintings have no modeling, perspective, or depth. They are simpler and more colorful than Pica-

<11 What Cubist elements can you find in this 1969 work?

Gt.at Huds,March 16.1969. Oil oo ta11'13S. l945 x 129cm.The SlateRussian Musam. St. Pete<sburg.Russia / The Bridgeman Art Library.<!) 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso I Artists Rights Society (ARS).N<w Yori<.

sso's earlier Cubist paintings. In them, flat, solid shapes interlock like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and broad organic curves produce a sense of movement.

In Three M usicians , Pierrot holds a wind instrument, while Harlequin holds a guitar and a third character, a bearded monk, holds a piece of sheet music. The musi cians' distorted bodies give them distinct personalities. The interaction between positive shapes and negative space creates a sense of visual rhythm that hints at the musical rhythm of the song the musicians are playing.

Throughout his life, which spanned nearly a century until his death in 1973, Picasso never stopped creating art or look ing for new ways to express himself. His work also reflected the troubled times he lived in. In 1936, a civil war broke out in Spain between the Spanish Republican government and forces led by General Francisco Franco. Franco's forces were supported by the brutal German dictator Adolf Hitler and

his Nazi Party. In 1937, German planes flew over the Spanish city of Guemica (GWAIR-ni-kuh). For three hours they released bombs over the city, killing between 250 and 1,600 civilians and re ducing the buildings to rubble.

That year, Picasso painted Weeping Woman (opposite page, right), a work that reflects his sorrow over the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. The painting combines Cubist elements, like multiple viewpoints with the distortions used in Three M usicians. Angular shapes, clashing color opposites (yellow/purple, red/ green) and repeated, slashing brushstrokescreate a sense of unrest and emotional anguish.

In 1939, General Franco's victory in Spain gave Hitler the confidence to invade Poland, an invasion that started World War II (1939- 1945). Picasso was living in Paris during the Spanish Civil War, so his life had not been di rectly affected by it. But in 1940, the Germans invaded Paris and controlled it until 1944.

The Nazis made these four years very hard for Picasso. They considered him an enemy because he made art that denounced Hitler. Nazi officers sometimes came to Picasso's studio to question him. One of them searched the stu dio and found a photograph of Guemica taken after the German bombing. "Did you do this?" he asked. "No," Picasso answered, "you did."

In 1944, when American, British, and Russian forces liberated Paris, the sounds of their gun fights with Nazi soldiers rang through the streets sur rounding Picasso's studio. Picasso continued to paint during these battles, singing to himself to drown out the noise. Through the turmoil of war and until the end of his life, he never stopped making art.

Picasso painted Great Heads (top) when he was inhis late 80s. This work shows Cubist influence: both heads are seen simultaneously from frontal and profile pointsof view. But Picasso has applied paint by dripping or squirting it onto the canvas, or by using his brush to lay down paint in thick layers and loose strokes. Jagged lines contrast with swirling lines. Shapes overlap and dissolve. All of these techniques were invented by a new generation of artists who had been inspired by Picasso's experiments.Picasso, in tum, experimented with techniques inventedby these artists. The Cubist revolution had come full circle.

MARCH 2009 •SCHOLASTIC ART 7

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CUBISTCONNECTIONSAfter reading about Picasso, canyou uncover the Cubist

connections behind each of these three works of art?

"I FORCED MYSELF TO... EXAMINE THESE MASKS, ALL THESE OBJECTS THAT PEOPLE HAD CREATED WITHA SACRED, MAGICAL PURPOSE."

-PABLO PICASSO

SIMPLIFIED FACEShe mask pictured here was made sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centu ries by the Fang peoples of Gabon, a country

located on the western coast of central Africa. Masks like this one were used in ceremonies to ward off trouble and provide protection.

Unlike Western artists, the artist who made these masks did not try to copy reality. Instead, their chief purpose was to convey emotions like anger or j oy, or qualities like humor or fierceness. To do this, they simplified faces into basic geometric forms, and showed only the features that best expressed their intended message. This mask has been carved torepresent both human and animal characteristics. Its jutting eyebrows, sharp nose, and gaping mouth were likely intended to make the mask look frightening.

African masks introduced Picasso to techniquesthat he later used in his Cubist paintings. Compare this mask to Picasso's study of a woman's head (page 4), and you'll notice many similarities. Both artists have simpli fied the organic shapes of the human face into basic geometric shapes and planar (consisting of planes) forms. In both works, the head resembles an oval, the nose resembles a triangle, and the brows resemble scooped-out arches. What similarities can you find be tween this mask and Picasso's later work?

II-- Mcl(bikegt,,i Fang peoples. L>le 19th-..rty 20lh cenlu,y,Objed PL>«:Middle Ogowe Ri,u ,,.., Gabon,Wood, pigment 19 in..Mus,om offr,e Arts. Boston. Gitt ol Wdliam E.and Bertha LTeel.199L1067.Photograph ll2009 Mu,eumol r.,.Arts.Boston.

10 SCHOLASTIC ART • 2009