Why Was Pablo Picasso so Important?
Pablo Picasso’s most important contribution to the world of art was his co-founding of the Cubist movement. He also contributed significantly to the invention of collage, constructed sculpture and the plastic arts.
Along with Georges Braque, Picasso created cubist painting, a style in which subjects are deconstructed into geometric shapes. Some of Picasso’s most famous cubist paintings are “Dora Maar au Chat,” “Femme Assise dans un Jardin” and “Guernica.” The development of cubism also led to synthetic cubism, in which cut pieces of paper were arranged into compositions. This represented the first use of collage in art.
Picasso was not limited to painting in a cubist style. He also worked in realism, symbolism, neoclassical and surrealism, as well as sculpture. Some of his well-known non-cubist works are “The Old Guitarist,” “Portrait of Gertrude Stein,” “Boy with a Pipe,” “Portrait of Igor Stravinsky” and “Sleeping Peasants.”
Picasso’s most significant sculpture was the “Chicago Picasso.” This work was commissioned by the city and unveiled in 1967. It is done in an abstract Cubist style, and even though it is unclear what it is meant to represent, it has become a Chicago landmark. Picasso was originally supposed to be paid $100,000 for it, but chose to forgo the payment and donate the sculpture as a gift to the people of the city.
