Pablo picasso seated woman holding a fan

Consider the painting above titled, Three Musicians , created by Pablo Picasso. First, describe the appearance of this painting, as explained in Chapter Two, under the section Art and Appearances. Be sure to explain it thoroughly. Next, briefly describe the form and subject matter of this painting, as explained in Chapter Two, under the section Art and Meaning. Please use proper grammar including proper punctuation (no text speak), and be at least 100 words in length. please download the file for all informationConsider the painting above titled, Three Musicians , created by Pablo Picasso. First, describe the appearance of this painting, as explained in Chapter Two, under the section Art and Appearances. Be sure to explain it thoroughly. Next, briefly describe the form and subject matter of this painting, as explained in Chapter Two, under the section Art and Meaning. Please use proper grammar including proper punctuation (no text speak), and be at least 100 words in length. Information: Art and Appearances The son of a painter who taught drawing, Pablo Picasso showed talent as a child and was surrounded by people who knew how to nurture it. Like a Renaissance apprentice, he grew up so immersed in art that he mastered traditional techniques while still a teenager. He completed First Communion in 1896 at the age of fifteen, the year he was accepted into art school (2.12). After graduation, Picasso moved from Barcelona to Paris, then the center of new directions in art. There he experimented with style after style. The one that launched him on his mature path would become known as Cubism, and it began to take form in paintings such as Seated Woman Holding a Fan (2.13). 2.12 Pablo Picasso. First Communion. 1895–96. Oil on canvas, 5′53⁄8′ × 3′101⁄2″. Museo Picasso, Barcelona 2.13 Pablo Picasso. Seated Woman Holding a Fan. 1908. Oil on canvas, 4′11″ × 3′33⁄8″. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Picasso was part of a courageous generation of artists who opened up new territory for Western art to explore. These artists had been trained in traditional skills, and yet they set off on paths where those skills were not required. Many people wish they hadn't. Many people feel that art should aim at representing appearances as faithfully as possible, that artists who do not do this are not good artists, and that paintings such as Seated Woman Holding a Fan are not good art, or perhaps not even art at all. Where do we get these ideas? The simple answer is that we get them from our own artistic heritage. For hundreds of years, Western art was distinguished among the artistic traditions of the world by precisely the concerns that Picasso and others turned their backs on. The elevation of painting and sculpture to higher status during the Renaissance had gone hand in hand with the discovery of new methods for making optically convincing representations. From that time until almost the end of the 19th century, a period of about five hundred years, techniques for representing the observable world of light and shadow and color and space—the techniques evident in First Communion—formed the foundation upon which Western art was built. Why did art change all of a sudden? There are many reasons, but Picasso, when asked, pointed to one in particular: photography. “Why should the artist persist in treating subjects that can be established so clearly with the lens of a camera?”4 he asked. Photography had been developed not long before the artists of Picasso's generation were born. They were the first generation to grow up taking it for granted. Photography is now so pervasive that we need to take a moment to realize how revolutionary that change was. From the Paleolithic cave paintings until about 160 years ago, images had to be made by hand. Suddenly, there was a mechanical way based on chemical reactions to light. For some artists, photography meant the end of painting, for manual skills were no longer needed to create a visual record. For Picasso, it meant liberation from a lifetime spent copying nature. “Now we know at least everything that painting isn't,”5 he said. If the essence of art was not visual fidelity, however, what was it? The adventure of the 20th century began. Representational and Abstract Art Both paintings by Picasso refer clearly to the visible world, yet each has a different relationship to it. First Communion is representational. Picasso set out to represent—that is, to present again—the visible world in such a way that we recognize a likeness. The word representational covers a broad range of approaches. First Communion is very faithful to visual experience, recording how forms are revealed by light and shadow, how bodies reflect an inner structure of bone and muscle, how fabric drapes over bodies and objects, and how gravity makes weight felt. We call this approach naturalistic. Seated Woman Holding a Fan is abstract.