Picasso

Throughout the 20th century people pushed their limits and exceeded every imaginable expectation. Inventive ideas lead to creations and an evolved existence. This was one of the few times in history where the collaboration of powerful minds expanded social boundaries and separated from the path of traditional art to produce individual interpretations of life through beautiful masterpieces. Two people who were at the forefront of this liberating revolution were Pablo Picasso, who expressed a majority of his work through his technique of cubism, and Salvador Dali, used symbolism, as a technique to express emotion.

Several artists influenced the world of art, but very few creators influenced the entire world with their creations. Pablo Picasso was one of the select few, who even as a child, was a recognized prodigy of the arts. One of Picasso's most influential contributions to modern day art was his unique style of cubism. This movement, although portrayed by several artists, was embodied and perfected in all of Picasso's work during the peak of his inspired career. Cubism is the artist's attempt to capture images that reflect multiple viewpoints and capture a visually organized chaos on canvas.

Some examples of this technique can be viewed in such works as "Man with a Violin" (1911) and "Les Demoiselles D' Avignon" (1907). Pablo Picasso's cubist paintings are highly regarded as master works, although advanced and controversial, and he is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Picasso's creativity flowed throughout his life and he was constantly improving and changing his artistic style. He was somewhat of an analytical man with creations that evolved through inspirations of outside elements, particularly other artists. He did not believe in rules or regulations when it came to a person's creative outlet, nor did he care for those who judged and did not create. Picasso rejected the idea of searching for a visual truth, but embraced individual interpretation, painting what he felt and not what he saw. An intricate combination of emotion, imagination, and curiosity liberated his unique style which was devoted to several genres of art.

One of this artist's most influential paintings was "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon". This painting, which was oil on canvas, was saturated with controversy and the topic of many critical art conversations. In this painting Picasso introduces a bold way, dubbed cubism, to express traditional subjects. Through the use of geometrical shapes and strong lines, Pablo creates a flowing image that is far more powerful than if the same painting was done in an objective and realistic manner. In this particular piece, the cubist product is a collection of techniques that are previously seen in primitive, Egyptian, and African art, along with Picasso's cohesive interpretations. The painting displays five nude women who are selling themselves as prostitutes in a small brothel located in Barcelona. The three figures in the middle are facing forward, one figure on the far left is directed perpendicular to the others, and the last figure is looking out toward the voyeur although her body is facing the other women. The images are angularly shaped, as if they were randomly pieced together by geometrical planes and then painted over. The faces of the two figures on the right resemble ancient African masks and the three on the left possess natural attributes, though visually manipulated. The background of the painting is symmetrical and angular, which allowed an image of movement or potential action, further reinforcing the cubist theme of this piece.

"Man with a Violin", created only four years after "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" is the perfect example of cubism. Here, Pablo Picasso takes an actual image, and filters almost every realistic quality out until he is left with this refined cubist masterpiece. The colors and shapes are offset achieving a painted labyrinth with the beginning and ending clearly in sight. The segments of color fade into each other, creating an ambiguous line of detail surrounding the man. In this piece Picasso also incorporated outside shapes and colors that appear irrelevant to the picture, but overall add to the cubist effect. Even the artist's brushstrokes are angular and form collective cubes. Although the man and his violin are not pieced together in an obvious fashion, the artist leaves just enough space between each fragment for the viewer to mentally piece it together.

"Cubism was an avant-garde art movement that revolutionised European painting and sculpture in the early 20th century"(1), and continues to influence great art through out the 21st century. This technique of painting in a jig-saw fashion was heavily criticized when it was first produced, and then later heavily appreciated when collectively interpreted, eventually becoming one of the world's most beautiful art genres.

Symbolism, "an art movement which rejected the purely visual realism of the impressionists, and the rationality of the idustrial age, in order to depict the symbols of ideas"(2), was a giant step in modern art. One of the founding fathers of this bold artistic genre was a Spainard by the name of Salvador Dali. This intensely creative man loved to be under the public eye whether it was for his paintings, movies, or product lines. Dali was greatly influenced during his time by Sigmund Freud, world religion, history and science. He was a world renowned surrealist who used an assortment of symbols to represent many self-interpreted aspects of civilization. Dali's paintings were filled with symbols ranging from religious images to phallic objects. He is recognized as one of the most talented painters with works like "The Persistence of Memory", "The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" and "The Hallucinogenic Torreador" to showcase his complex creations.

In 1931 Salvador painted "The Persistence of Memory" which is a surrealist painting of his hometown