CUBISM

Actualizado: 1 feb 2023

WHY IS IT CALLED CUBISM?

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque may be the famous artists we think of when we talk about cubism, but they didn't invent the term. In fact, it was the artist Henri Matisse. He apparently saw some paintings by Georges Braque and described them as being made up of 'little cubes'! An art critic overheard him and invented the term 'cubism'.

WAS CUBISM JUST PAINTINGS?

No! Cubism definitely included sculpture too. Picasso was mainly a painter, but he also experimented with making sculptures like the one you can see below, which is a still-life. That means he looked at a selection of objects and tried to capture what they looked like in the sculpture. What objects can you see?

PABLO PICASSO

SELF PORTRAIT EVOLUTION

GUERNICA

Celebración Picasso 1973-2023

Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023

The 8 April 2023 marks the 50th anniversary since the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Madrid is set to host many of the activities featured in a programme put together by the French and Spanish governments to honour the occasion. Organised with the support of renowned cultural institutions in Europe and the USA, Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023 features some fifty exhibitions and events which together provide a historiographical analysis of the artist’s work. Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain on 25 October 1881, and died in the French town of Mougins on 8 April 1973. One of the most famous painters in the history of Western art, his free, expressive, multifaceted artistic language continues to influence contemporary art and thinking. Celebrating Picasso 1973-2023 seeks to showcase the career of the European artist who not only drew on his deep knowledge of heritage and the principles of tradition, but also on his understanding of classicism as an ethical value, in order to create iconic, internationally acclaimed works. Guernica, which has become emblematic of the fight to protect human rights, is an example of one of these pieces.

El 8 de abril de 2023 se cumple el cincuenta aniversario del fallecimiento del artista español Pablo Picasso. Madrid acoge muchas de las actividades del programa que los gobiernos de Francia y España han preparado para conmemorar la fecha. Con el respaldo de instituciones culturales de renombre en Europa y Estados Unidos, la Celebración Picasso 1973-2023 gira en torno a unas cincuenta exposiciones y eventos que, en su conjunto, abordan un análisis historiográfico de la obra de Picasso. Nacido en Málaga, el 25 de octubre de 1881, y fallecido en la población francesa de Mougins, el 8 de abril de 1973, Pablo Picasso es uno de los más célebres pintores de la historia del arte occidental. Su lenguaje expresivo, libre y multiforme sigue influyendo en el arte y la reflexión contemporáneos. La Celebración Picasso 1973-2023 pretende poner en valor la trayectoria de un artista esencialmente europeo, quien, desde un profundo conocimiento del acervo y los principios de la tradición y una comprensión del clasicismo como valor ético, proyectó internacionalmente símbolos tan universales como el Guernica, hoy emblema colectivo en la defensa de los derechos humanos.