Knock-Out Picasso

This piece immediately arrests the eye. It projects the character of the figure as well as interesting and complex sense of movement combined with form. In my opinion.
http://www.noma.org/html_docs/cont_me.html

the picasso is the second thumbnail down on the right.

'woman with a tamborine'? i found almost no redeeming qualities in this piece: color? absent. composition? figure smack in the middle, no interesting negative space. womanly or feminine? i'd give it a 3 or 4 out of ten, it did have breasts and the curve of one leg was actually interesting... and i really WANT to like this guy. i thought the matisse was the most pleasing/successful painting on the page. vibrant colors and shapes at least thoughtfully placed and composed forms.

I liked the Max Ernst the best. It reminds me of the soft handling of an etching and keeps me wanting to look at it. Probably because he was adept at arrangements. Everything else looked like a warning poster against using thalidomide.

It doesn't matter to me how many pieces Picasso 'knocked out.' He was one of the greatest examples of artistic productivity since Renoir or Cezanne. If he painted three hundred 'bad pieces of crap' to get to that one, final masterpiece, then to me - it was worthwhile.

The problem is, the art culture took every doodle and every scribble of his as being finished. Nobody ever seems to understand that most of the 'bad pieces of crap' you see of his, were simply studies or simply him making a living selling his craft.

Personally, I think calling anything by the man a 'piece of crap' is simply juvenile and ignorant, but what do I know. ;o)

Here's one of his 'better pieces of crap' in my humble opinion:

I'll accept that, however...

Don't you think calling 'every doodle and every scribbled study' a 'masterwork' is 'juvenile and ignorant?

I do not want to have my opinins confused with those of Picasso critics. When I titled the thread 'knock out' I meant that the piece was a Knock Out, in the sense of its being very good. This piece was not one of the cheap line drawing lithos made only for money and peddled by art dealers. It is a good piece.

You might note the the piece is an etching, which usually does not have color. Art does not need color to be good. Do you condemn Ansel Andams or Brett Weston for the same reasons?

composition? figure smack in the middle, no

You are looking for realism then. Why do think it is a woman at all then? You see some feminine features then demand it become cheesecake.

You might also note that this piece is a cubist work, about which you seem to know nothing.

I'm more interested in this web site's chronological presentation of Picasso's ouvre over time. Thanks for pointing it out. It's the kind of revealing look at his evolution/revolution that is only possible usually in book form. I know of no other artist - ever - who experimented in so many different styles over a lifetime. It's what sets him so far apart from other artists of that era - or any era for that matter.

i like the don quijote and sancho panza ink drawing. it has character and style with a minimum of lines. AND it has good composition. simple but accurate.