Anjas’ Theme Of The Week: Picasso week 4: African Period

Picasso: African Period

Picasso - Woman with a Fan , 1907

If you have been following my #PicassoWeek posts, you probably noticed that I'm posting in chronological order. After "Early years", Blue period and Rose period we reached the African Period. Picasso is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement. During the African period (1906 to 1909) he is developing his painting in that direction. The first painting that is considered an cubist painting: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was painted in 1907. There is Africa and cubism in it. I could have placed it in this album. But it'll be in my album about cubism.

The paintings in this album are in Chronological order, except for the first one. It's my favorite of this period, so..... You can see the development towards full "Analytic Cubism". I most warn you. Al my albums are filled with my favorites. They might not be yours. There is so much more to see. So many amazing works by this amazing artist. Here you can see many more paintings from the African Period: Here

Picasso - Bust of nude woman, 1906

About the African Period (Wikipedia)
Picasso's African Period, which lasted from 1906 to 1909, was the period when Pablo Picasso painted in a style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture. This period, which followed his Blue Period and Rose Period, has also occasionally been called the Negro Period or Black Period.

This 19th-century Fang sculpture is similar in style to what Picasso encountered in Paris just prior to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
In the early 20th century, African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums in consequence of the expansion of the French empire into Africa. The press was abuzz with exaggerated stories of cannibalism and exotic tales about the African kingdom of Dahomey. The mistreatment of Africans in the Belgian Congo was exposed in Joseph Conrad's popular book Heart of Darkness. It was natural in this climate of African interest that Picasso would look towards African artifacts as inspiration for some of his work; his interest was sparked by Henri Matisse who showed him a mask from the Dan region of Africa.

Picasso - A girl from Avignon, 1907

In May or June 1907, Picasso experienced a "revelation" while viewing African art at the ethnographic museum at Palais du Trocadéro. Picasso's discovery of African art influenced the style of his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (begun in May 1907 and reworked in July of that year), especially in the treatment of the two figures on the right side of the composition.
Although Les Demoiselles is seen as the first Cubist work, Picasso continued to develop a style derived from African art before beginning the Analytic Cubism phase of his painting in 1910. Other works of Picasso's African Period include the Bust of a Woman (1907, in the National Gallery, Prague); Mother and Child (Summer 1907, in the Musée Picasso, Paris); Nude with Raised Arms (1907, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain); and Three Women (Summer 1908, in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).