Comparing Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Morrocco Essay

Comparing Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Morrocco I have decided to contrast and compare paintings by cubist artist Pablo Picasso and contemporary artist Alberto Morrocco. I have studied their paintings to find out their influences and any similarities between their work. I have tried to find a source of their motivation and reason for their interpretations. Firstly, I am going to write about cubist artist, Pablo Picasso. Inspired by artist Paul Cezanne, the father of analytical cubism, Picasso attempted many styles of work. He experimented with different media and use of colour, throughout his artistic career. His paintings reflected his moods and attitudes, which changed several times during the course of his life. As a result of this, groups of his painting can be separated into 'periods'. A very famous period Picasso developed was his 'Blue Period', where the paintings of this time were blue in colour and portrayed him to be unhappy. An example of this is ' The Tragedy' painted in 1903. The painting is of a family standing on a beach, frozen like statues. In my perception, it takes on the image of a snapshot, eternally showing these still lonely figures. The painting looks cold due to Picasso's use of blue, submitting further the idea of unintimacy and absence of love within this solemn family. I understand why Picasso adopted such a melancholy atmosphere; it was a result of his friend committing suicide in 1901. His use of thick brush strokes and realistic perception of a family drowned by the presence of poverty, portray an image of deep sorrow and sadness. A painting that resembles Picasso's 'The Tragedy' is the 'Siesta' by Alberto Morrocco painted in 1971. Picasso and artist Henri Matisse had great influence Alberto Morrocco. Inspiration also came from his principal teacher James Cowie, who encouraged Morrocco to make painting his career. The 'Siesta' shows a female child sleeping naked on a table. Sitting behind her is a woman, presumably her mother, who is awake and holing a sunflower. This also can be perceived as a photographic image. I feel as though the woman is staring directly at the camera, her eyes fixated upon me. This highlights one similarity between Morrocco's 'Siesta' and Picasso's 'The Tragedy' purely by choice of composition. Another similarity I have discovered is that both art... ...to be in this painting, the egg would have rolled off. Both these paintings are similar also in colour. The colours used are bright, strong and effective. I believe that the colour concepts bring each painting to life. Picasso used natural colours to represent the natural significance of the objects in this painting. This makes me feel comfortable and at peace. Morrocco chose olive green, reds and blues to capture the essence of his native Italy. This, in my opinion, gives the painting a special quality and is very pleasing to look at. Picasso's 'Bread Fruit Dish on a Table' is a fantastic example of how he experimented with shape and tried to teach himself and learn through experience the techniques of analytical cubism. He later used this new knowledge to develop cubism further and create a new, unique style which he called synthetic cubism. Alberto Morrocco sought inspiration from Picasso's cubist phase and tried out the style himself. ' Homage a Braque' is a very interesting painting which clearly shows similarities between his paintings and those by Pablo Picasso. However, Morrocco gave an incentive of himself into his painting making it his own masterpiece.