Carsten-Peter Warncke

The Fall of Icarus, 1958

Art historian Carsten-Peter Warncke's book on Picasso is an extensive examination of the artist’s work from beginning to end, in seven lively chapters: Picasso the Legend, The Early Years 1890-1901, The Blue and Rose Periods 1901-1906, Cubism 1906-1936, Classicism and Surrealism 1916-1936, War, Art and Politics 1937-1953, The Man and the Myth 1954-1973. Since this is a book review and not a book, I will limit myself to the final chapter, the last phase of the show more artist’s life and work, Picasso between the ages of 73 and 92, a phase I find particularly absorbing. Below are a number of quotes from the renowned art historian’s The Man and the Myth 1954-1973 along with my comments:

“Picasso’s work from the later 1950s onwards typically drew upon personal material and also worked with constant repetition of his own motifs and compositions.” ---------- The Rape of the Sabine Women is a good case in point. Anybody familiar with Picasso will identify many familiar aspects in this work: the instantly recognizable rendering of the horse, the uplifted, screaming head, the twisted, multi-dimensional head and body of the prone woman. I personally have had several opportunities to view this masterpiece in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As with the other pics I’ve included here, a tiny reproduction doesn’t do justice to the actual canvas (195 x 130 cm or about 6 feet high and 4 feet wide). A direct encounter with this Picasso is both astounding and humbling.


The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1963

“Picasso was now scarcely concerned to mirror the outside world. Instead, he took his own work as the center of the creative universe.” ---------- With Claude Drawing, Françoise et Paloma, the exclusive focus of attention for all three - woman, little girl and little boy - is the little boy’s process of drawing on paper. Such a tender rendering, the arm around the little girl, each child given its own rectangle of vivid color, the adult’s supportive presence and eyeing of the paper. And, along with his drawing, Claude has such a calm, inward focus, as if his sketch is an extension of his confidence and tenderness. My sense is Claude can represent Picasso returning to his own youthful vision of what it means to be a creative artist.


Claude Drawing, Françoise et Paloma, 1954

“In the picture done on March 30, 1956, Picasso used a simple but witty device to underline his own creative inventiveness, placing at the center of the studio scene a fresh, virgin canvas awaiting the artist. The pure, white, empty space contrasts with the rest of the picture and is also its prime subject.” ---------- In addition to what Carsten-Peter Warncke notes here, Picasso accomplishes, through a reversal of color, much of what artist Kazimir Malevich accomplished with his Black Square, for example, a painting (the empty white canvas) that isn’t specifically one thing.


The Studio of "La Californie" at Cannes, 1956


Black Square by Kazimir Malevich

“Calling the figure a football player is sleight of hand. The trick is made plausible purely by the painted shirt, shorts and boots. Sculpture such as this is not intended as a mimetic representation of reality; rather, it sets out to play with the basics of visual experience. And deception is the fundamental principle of this art.” ---------- Actually, I see many elements of dance in athletes playing soccer and other sports. With this sculpture, through his visual genius and creative magic, Picasso captures the very essence of fluid movement in an accomplished player on the field.


Football Player, 1961

“The picture within a picture was one of Picasso’s traditional motifs; through it, he grants us access to the very essence of the creative process. Picasso is showing us his power. He can make a world out of nothing.” ---------- A few things I specifically relish in this painting (a huge canvas, thus my 2nd pic here): the curving flourish of the artist’s yellow hat, the stunning beauty of the model captured in her Picasso-like wide Spanish eyes and long black hair and how the intensity of the artist’s gaze is transferred directly to his brush and finally the asymmetrical canvas.



Painter and his model, 1963


“In old age, Picasso transferred to his art the task of expressing the vitality which was ebbing from his life. Hence, for instance, the new graphic works which, when successful, articulated lifelong fascinations in a succinct and impeccably judged manner. All of the etchings are precise records of carefully-observed scenes, using just a few dabs and strokes, quickly but perfectly done.” ---------- For me, such sparse dabbing and stroking brings to mind Chinese brush painting. What is left unpainted speaks with such subtle power.


Los Cabestros Retiran Al Toro Manso, 1957


Bamboo by Gloria Whea-Fun Teng, 2009

“In Picasso’s ouvre we plainly see a rational, logical, consistent method. At core he was an intellectual artist. In a real sense, Picasso transferred ideas into art, and created unified harmonies of idea and artwork, form and content, which are fundamentally traditional in nature and highlights his classical character.” ---------- Call me a radical, but I find Picasso’s Las Meninas more eye-catching. I know, I know . . . I probably wouldn’t think so if I viewed the original Diego Velázquez.


Las Meninas (after Velázquez), 1957


detail of Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, 1656

“Picasso’s true greatness and significance lie in his dual role as revolutionary and traditionalist at once. He gave a new vitality to art even as he preserved the creative presence (outside the museums) of its history. For this reason he became the pre-eminent figure in 20th-century art.” ---------- Of the many elements of Musketeer with pipe that I adore is how Picasso paints the shoes of the musketeer as if they are shocked, squealing dachshunds, dachshunds who could be the stand-ins for uptight philistines who think they can stand in judgement of his art. Squeal and judge me all you want, you no-talent cretins!


Musketeer with pipe, 1968 show less

The Fall of Icarus, 1958

Art historian Carsten-Peter Warncke's book on Picasso is an extensive examination of the artist’s work from beginning to end, in seven lively chapters: Picasso the Legend, The Early Years 1890-1901, The Blue and Rose Periods 1901-1906, Cubism 1906-1936, Classicism and Surrealism 1916-1936, War, Art and Politics 1937-1953, The Man and the Myth 1954-1973. Since this is a book review and not a book, I will limit myself to the final chapter, the last phase of the show more artist’s life and work, Picasso between the ages of 73 and 92, a phase I find particularly absorbing. Below are a number of quotes from the renowned art historian’s The Man and the Myth 1954-1973 along with my comments:

“Picasso’s work from the later 1950s onwards typically drew upon personal material and also worked with constant repetition of his own motifs and compositions.” ---------- The Rape of the Sabine Women is a good case in point. Anybody familiar with Picasso will identify many familiar aspects in this work: the instantly recognizable rendering of the horse, the uplifted, screaming head, the twisted, multi-dimensional head and body of the prone woman. I personally have had several opportunities to view this masterpiece in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As with the other pics I’ve included here, a tiny reproduction doesn’t do justice to the actual canvas (195 x 130 cm or about 6 feet high and 4 feet wide). A direct encounter with this Picasso is both astounding and humbling.

The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1963

“Picasso was now scarcely concerned to mirror the outside world. Instead, he took his own work as the center of the creative universe.” ---------- With Claude Drawing, Françoise et Paloma, the exclusive focus of attention for all three - woman, little girl and little boy - is the little boy’s process of drawing on paper. Such a tender rendering, the arm around the little girl, each child given its own rectangle of vivid color, the adult’s supportive presence and eyeing of the paper. And, along with his drawing, Claude has such a calm, inward focus, as if his sketch is an extension of his confidence and tenderness. My sense is Claude can represent Picasso returning to his own youthful vision of what it means to be a creative artist.

Claude Drawing, Françoise et Paloma, 1954

“In the picture done on March 30, 1956, Picasso used a simple but witty device to underline his own creative inventiveness, placing at the center of the studio scene a fresh, virgin canvas awaiting the artist. The pure, white, empty space contrasts with the rest of the picture and is also its prime subject.” ---------- In addition to what Carsten-Peter Warncke notes here, Picasso accomplishes, through a reversal of color, much of what artist Kazimir Malevich accomplished with his Black Square, for example, a painting (the empty white canvas) that isn’t specifically one thing.

The Studio of "La Californie" at Cannes, 1956


Black Square by Kazimir Malevich

“Calling the figure a football player is sleight of hand. The trick is made plausible purely by the painted shirt, shorts and boots. Sculpture such as this is not intended as a mimetic representation of reality; rather, it sets out to play with the basics of visual experience. And deception is the fundamental principle of this art.” ---------- Actually, I see many elements of dance in athletes playing soccer and other sports. With this sculpture, through his visual genius and creative magic, Picasso captures the very essence of fluid movement in an accomplished player on the field.

Football Player, 1961

“The picture within a picture was one of Picasso’s traditional motifs; through it, he grants us access to the very essence of the creative process. Picasso is showing us his power. He can make a world out of nothing.” ---------- A few things I specifically relish in this painting (a huge canvas, thus my 2nd pic here): the curving flourish of the artist’s yellow hat, the stunning beauty of the model captured in her Picasso-like wide Spanish eyes and long black hair and how the intensity of the artist’s gaze is transferred directly to his brush and finally the asymmetrical canvas.

Painter and his model, 1963


“In old age, Picasso transferred to his art the task of expressing the vitality which was ebbing from his life. Hence, for instance, the new graphic works which, when successful, articulated lifelong fascinations in a succinct and impeccably judged manner. All of the etchings are precise records of carefully-observed scenes, using just a few dabs and strokes, quickly but perfectly done.” ---------- For me, such sparse dabbing and stroking brings to mind Chinese brush painting. What is left unpainted speaks with such subtle power.

Los Cabestros Retiran Al Toro Manso, 1957


Bamboo by Gloria Whea-Fun Teng, 2009

“In Picasso’s ouvre we plainly see a rational, logical, consistent method. At core he was an intellectual artist. In a real sense, Picasso transferred ideas into art, and created unified harmonies of idea and artwork, form and content, which are fundamentally traditional in nature and highlights his classical character.” ---------- Call me a radical, but I find Picasso’s Las Meninas more eye-catching. I know, I know . . . I probably wouldn’t think so if I viewed the original Diego Velázquez.

Las Meninas (after Velázquez), 1957


detail of Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, 1656

“Picasso’s true greatness and significance lie in his dual role as revolutionary and traditionalist at once. He gave a new vitality to art even as he preserved the creative presence (outside the museums) of its history. For this reason he became the pre-eminent figure in 20th-century art.” ---------- Of the many elements of Musketeer with pipe that I adore is how Picasso paints the shoes of the musketeer as if they are shocked, squealing dachshunds, dachshunds who could be the stand-ins for uptight philistines who think they can stand in judgement of his art. Squeal and judge me all you want, you no-talent cretins!

Musketeer with pipe, 1968 show less

The two volume book is arranged in seventeen chapters concluding with a considerable Chronology illustrated with numerous black and white pictures, mostly photographs with many of the artist, Notes, a Bibliography which includes exhibition catalogues, and a rather brief (one page) Index of Names.

The opening Chapter reminds us of the stature of the man, and of his prodigious output; briefly summarising his career. The subsequent Chapters chronicle Picasso’s progress starting with his show more childhood efforts, through the Blue and Rose Periods, Cubism, ”Guernica” to mention just a few and concluding with “The Legend of the Artist”. It is intelligently written, accessible and makes very interesting reading. The illustrations run with the text and are usually within a page or two of the relevant reference.

Produced in two paperback volumes in a cardboard slipcase Taschen’s 25 anniversary edition is an impressive effort. It is superbly illustrated throughout with approaching 1,500 images mainly in colour but with a few back and white (usually drawings or photographs). The smallest pictures are just thumbnails, the largest full page and the occasional double page spread, with every size between; but there are plenty of good sized pictures with whole sections of colour plates, it certainly makes an impressive array. Overall the pictures far outweigh the text.

At such good value for money it is hard to be critical of this two volume set, but I fear I have two concerns. Firstly the Index seems wholly inadequate, an Index of Names which amounts to one page; finding a particular painting or anything else might prove difficult. Secondly, while the two volumes come protected in a slipcase, the card covers to the individual volumes feel very slight; with each approaching 400 pages one feels one has to handle them with great care for fear of damaging the binding. It is however a very worthwhile set, one would be hard pressed to find so many reproductions of Picasso’s work elsewhere for the money. show less

Cartea explorează mișcarea De Stijl (1917–1931), evidențiind idealurile estetice și filosofice care au ghidat artiștii și designerii olandezi în căutarea unei arte pure, abstracte și armonioase.

📖 Despre autor

a) Carsten-Peter Warncke este istoric de artă și cercetător german, specializat în arta modernă și avangardă europeană.
b) A publicat lucrări despre design, arhitectură și mișcări artistice din secolul XX.
c) Stilul său combină analiza critică cu show more contextualizarea istorică și teoretică a fenomenelor artistice.

📚 Despre volum

a) Cartea documentează dezvoltarea mișcării De Stijl între 1917 și 1931, fondată de Theo van Doesburg și Piet Mondrian.
b) Analizează conceptele teoretice, lucrările de artă, arhitectura și designul de interior inspirate de principiile De Stijl.
c) Include reproduceri ale operelor, diagrame, planuri de design și comentarii critice.
d) Evidențiază idealul artei universale, bazat pe abstractizare, geometrie și armonie cromatică.

🔎 Teme principale

a) Abstracție și geometrie: eliminarea figurativului în favoarea formelor pure.
b) Culori și compoziție: folosirea primară a culorilor și a liniilor verticale și orizontale.
c) Integrarea artei și designului: artă, arhitectură și design ca un tot unitar.
d) Filosofia estetică: căutarea armoniei și echilibrului în artă și viață.
e) Influența asupra avangardei și modernismului european.

⚖️ Semnificație

a) Cartea explică modul în care De Stijl a redefinit conceptele de artă și design în secolul XX.
b) Contribuie la înțelegerea evoluției artei abstracte și a interacțiunii dintre teorie și practică artistică.
c) Este o sursă valoroasă pentru istorici de artă, designeri, arhitecți și pasionați de modernism.
d) Arată cum idealurile estetice pot modela nu doar operele de artă, ci și mediul construit și obiectele cotidiene. show less