P L AY G U I D E
About ATC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction to the Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Meet the Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Meet the Playwright. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Herbert Siguenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Picasso: The Artist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Picasso’s Who’s Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Picasso’s Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1
A World View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Discussion Questions and Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso Play Guide written and compiled by Katherine Monberg, ATC Literary Associate, with assistance
from April Jackson, Education Manager; Luke Young, Education Associate; Natasha Smith, Artistic and Playwriting Intern;
Kalan Benbow and Skye Westberg, Literary Interns.
SUPPORT FOR ATC’S EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING HAS BEEN
PROVIDED BY:
APS
Rosemont Copper
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Stonewall Foundation
Bank of America Foundation
Target
Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona
The Boeing Company
City Of Glendale
The Donald Pitt Family Foundation
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona
The Johnson Family Foundation, Inc.
Cox Charities
The Lovell Foundation
Downtown Tucson Partnership
The Marshall Foundation
Enterprise Holdings Foundation
The Maurice and Meta Gross Foundation
Ford Motor Company Fund
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation
The Stocker Foundation
JPMorgan Chase
The William L. and Ruth T. Pendleton Memorial Fund
John and Helen Murphy Foundation
Tucson Medical Center
National Endowment for the Arts
Tucson Pima Arts Council
Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
Wells Fargo
PICOR Charitable Foundation
ABOUT ATC
Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. This means all of our artists, administrators and
production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our
budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profit.
Each season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see
on stage. In addition, ATC currently employs about 100 staff members in our production shops and administrative offices in
Tucson and Phoenix during our season. Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers,
stage directors, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box office agents, stage crew – the list is endless
– representing an amazing range of talents and skills.
We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and
expertise to assist the theatre in financial and legal matters, advise in marketing and fundraising, and help represent the
theatre in our community.
Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousand of those people support us with charitable
contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets. Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state
governments also support our work financially.
All of this is in support of our vision and mission:
OUR VISION IS TO TOUCH LIVES THROUGH THE POWER OF THEATRE.
Our mission is to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence and that
resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation. In order to fulfill our mission, the theatre produces a broad
repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to
the broadest spectrum of citizens.
The Temple of Music and Art, the home of ATC shows in downtown Tucson.
The Herberger Theater Center, ATC’s performance venue in downtown Phoenix.
1
INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso
By Herbert Siguenza
Based on the writings of Pablo Picasso
Directed by Todd Salovey
The work of Pablo Picasso forever changed the way that the world looks at art.
This one-man show, written by and starring the astonishing actor and artist
Herbert Siguenza, will forever change the way that you think about Picasso. In a
performance that explodes with color, Picasso’s most intimate thoughts rip
through the air with each thundering brushstroke as Siguenza creates six new
masterpieces live on stage in this Arizona premiere.
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
“Action is the foundation to all success. Do not try, DO! Do not seek, FIND!”
– Picasso, A Weekend with Pablo Picasso
MEET THE CHARACTERS
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain, Pablo Picasso’s full name, which
honors a variety of relatives and saints, is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula
Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad
Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. Picasso’s mother was Doña Maria Picasso
y Lopez and his father was Don José Ruiz Blasco, a painter and art teacher.
A serious and prematurely world-weary child, the young Picasso possessed
a pair of piercing, watchful black eyes that seemed to mark him destined for
greatness. “When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier,
you’ll be a general. If you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope,’” he later
recalled. “Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso.
Picasso in his studio, La Californie, in Cannes, France.
Though he was a relatively poor student, Picasso displayed a prodigious
talent for drawing at a very young age. According to legend, his first words
were “piz, piz,” his childish attempt at saying “lápiz,” the Spanish word for
pencil. Picasso’s father began teaching him to draw and paint when he was a
child, and by the time he was 13 years old, his skill level had surpassed his
father’s. Soon, Picasso lost all desire to do any schoolwork, choosing to spend
the school days doodling in his notebook instead. “For being a bad student,
I was banished to the ‘calaboose,’ a bare cell with whitewashed walls and
a bench to sit on,” he later remembered. “I liked it there, because I took along
a sketch pad and drew incessantly ... I could have stayed there forever, drawing
without stopping.”
In 1895, when Picasso was 14 years old, he moved with his family to Barcelona,
Spain, where he applied to the city’s prestigious School of Fine Arts. Although
the school typically only accepted students several years his senior, Picasso’s
entrance exam was so extraordinary that he was granted an exception and
admitted. Nevertheless, Picasso chafed at the School of Fine Arts’ strict rules
and formalities, and began skipping class so that he could roam the streets of
Barcelona, sketching the city scenes he observed.
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In 1897, a 16-year-old Picasso moved to Madrid to attend the Royal Academy
of San Fernando. However, he again became frustrated with his school’s
singular focus on classical subjects and techniques. During this time, he wrote
to a friend: “They just go on and on about the same old stuff: Velázquez for
painting, Michelangelo for sculpture.” Once again, Picasso began skipping
class to wander the city and paint what he observed: gypsies, beggars and
prostitutes, among other things.
Pablo Picasso (in the beret) and scene painters sitting on the front
cloth for the ballet Parade, staged by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 1917. Photo by Lachmann.
In 1899, Picasso moved back to Barcelona and fell in with a crowd of artists
and intellectuals who made their headquarters at a café called El Quatre Gats
(“The Four Cats”). Inspired by the anarchists and radicals he met there,
Picasso made his decisive break from the classical methods in which he
had been trained, and began what would become a lifelong process of
experimentation and innovation.
At the turn of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso moved to Paris, France – the
cultural center of European art – to open his own studio. Art critics and
historians typically break Picasso’s adult career into distinct periods, the first
of which lasted from 1901 to 1904 and is called his “Blue Period,” after the
color that dominated nearly all of Picasso’s paintings over these years. Lonely
and deeply depressed over the death of his close friend, Carlos Casagemas,
he painted scenes of poverty, isolation and anguish, almost exclusively in
shades of blue and green.
Francoise Gilot and Pablo Picasso celebrate his 70th birthday.
By 1905, Picasso had largely overcome the depression that had previously
debilitated him. Not only was he madly in love with a beautiful model,
Fernande Olivier, he was newly prosperous thanks to the generous patronage
of art dealer Ambroise Vollard. The artistic manifestation of Picasso’s
improved spirits was the introduction of warmer colors – including beiges,
pinks and reds – in what is known as his “Rose Period.”
In 1907, Pablo Picasso produced a painting unlike anything he or anyone else had ever painted before, a work that would
profoundly influence the direction of art in the 20th century: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a chilling depiction of five nude
prostitutes, abstracted and distorted with sharp geometric features and stark blotches of blues, greens and grays. Today,
Les Demoiselles is considered the precursor and inspiration of cubism, an artistic style pioneered by Picasso and his friend and
fellow painter, Georges Braque.
The outbreak of World War I ushered in the next great change in Picasso’s art. He grew more somber and, once again, became
preoccupied with the depiction of reality. He briefly joined the Russian Ballet in 1917, designing sets for the ballet Parade by his
friend and fellow artist Jean Cocteau. There Picasso met and fell in love with ballerina Olga Khokhlova, whom he married in
1918 upon his return to Paris. In 1921, Olga gave birth to their first child, Paulo, from which point the couple’s relationship quickly
deteriorated.
Olga was a member of the nobility, accustomed to an upper-class lifestyle, enabling Picasso to a life as a society husband and
prompting his return to more traditional artistic techniques. His works between 1918 and 1927 are categorized as part of his
“Classical Period,” a brief return to realism in a career otherwise dominated by experimentation.
In 1927, Picasso began an affair with 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter, and became caught up in a new philosophical and
cultural movement known as surrealism, the artistic manifestation of which was a product of his own cubism. He carried on the
affair with Marie-Thérèse in secret until Olga discovered Marie-Thérèse’s pregnancy; Marie-Thérèse gave birth to Maya,
Picasso’s second child, in September of 1935. Olga moved to the South of France with Paulo and filed for divorce; French law
required the equitable division of property upon divorce, which Picasso refused, so the two remained estranged but legally
married until Olga’s death from cancer in 1955.
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In 1936, Picasso met and fell in love with photographer and painter Dora Maar,
who became the rival of his previous mistress, Marie-Thérèse; Marie-Thérèse
eventually moved to Paris with their daughter Maya in 1940. By 1943, Picasso’s
affections had transferred to young painter, Francoise Gilot, with whom he
would live for the next ten years and have two children: Claude in 1947 and
Paloma in 1949.
Picasso with his children, Claude and Paloma.
Picasso and some of his work in Cannes, 1955.
In the aftermath of World War II, Picasso became more overtly political. He
joined the Communist Party and was twice honored with the International
Lenin Peace Prize, first in 1950 and again in 1961. By this point in his life, he
was also an international celebrity, the world’s most famous living artist.
While paparazzi chronicled his every move, however, few paid attention to his
art during this time. In 1953, Picasso met Jacqueline Roque, whom he would
marry in 1961, after the death of his first wife, Olga.
In contrast to the dazzling complexity of Synthetic Cubism, Picasso’s later
paintings display simple, childlike imagery and crude technique. Touching on
the artistic validity of these later works, Picasso once remarked upon passing
a group of school kids in his old age, “When I was as old as these children,
I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them.”
Picasso created the epitome of his later work, Self Portrait Facing Death, using
pencil and crayon, a year before his death. The autobiographical subject,
drawn with crude technique, appears as something between a human and an
ape, with a green face and pink hair. Yet the expression in his eyes, capturing
a lifetime of wisdom, fear and uncertainty, is the unmistakable work of a
master at the height of his powers.
Pablo Picasso continued to create art and maintain an ambitious schedule in his later years, superstitiously believing that work
would keep him alive. He died on April 8, 1973, at the age of 91, in Mougins, France. His legacy, however, has long endured.
Inarguably one of the most celebrated and influential painters of the 20th century, Picasso continues to garner reverence for
his technical mastery, visionary creativity and profound empathy, and, together, these qualities have distinguished him as a
revolutionary artist. Picasso also remains renowned for endlessly reinventing himself, switching between styles so radically
different that his life’s work seems to be the product of five or six great artists rather than just one.
In regard to his penchant for style diversity, Picasso insisted that his varied work was not indicative of radical shifts throughout
his career, but, rather, of his dedication to objectively evaluating for each piece the form and technique best suited to achieve
his desired effect. “Whenever I wanted to say something, I said it the way I believed I should,” he explained. “Different themes
inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply either evolution or progress; it is a matter of following
the idea one wants to express and the way in which one wants to express it.”
Biography adapted from http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021#video-gallery.
4
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT
Herbert Siguenza, creator
and performer of A Weekend
with Pablo Picasso. Photo by
Darren Scott.
Herbert Siguenza (Pablo Picasso) is a founding member of the performance group Culture Clash. Along
with Richard Montoya and Ric Salinas, Culture Clash is the most-produced Latino theatre troupe in the
United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1984, Culture Clash has performed on the stages of America’s
top regional theatres including the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Alley Theatre,
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, San
Diego Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Huntington Theatre Company and countless universities and
colleges. Mr. Siguenza has co-written and/or performed in the following Culture Clash plays: American
Night (commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Palestine New Mexico, Water and Power, Chavez
Ravine (all three commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum); Peace (commissioned by Getty Villa); Zorro
in Hell! (commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre); The Birds (commissioned by Berkeley Repertory
Theatre and South Coast Repertory); Bordertown (commissioned by San Diego Repertory Theatre);
Radio Mambo, Nuyorican Stories, Anthems, S.O.S., A Bowl of Beings, The Mission and others. As a solo
writer and performer Mr. Siguenza has produced Cantinflas! and A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, currently
on national tour. His latest plays Steal Heaven and El Henry (Best New Play, San Diego Critics Circle
Award 2014) have been produced at San Diego Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse. Mr. Siguenza
is also an accomplished visual artist and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. He has a B.F.A.
in printmaking from the California College of Arts, Oakland, California. TV and Film credits: Ben Ten Alien
Swarm for Cartoon Network and Larry Crowne, a feature film directed by Tom Hanks.
BEHIND THE SCENES: AN INTERVIEW WITH HERBERT SIGUENZA
INTERVIEW WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT
Mark Bly, Resident Dramaturg of the Alley Theatre, Interviews Herbert Siguenza
Mark Bly: What inspired you to write A Weekend with Pablo Picasso?
Herbert Siguenza: I was born with the mysterious gift of being able to draw.
Since I was a young boy, I would press crayons against paper and create
imaginary worlds and characters. In fact, when I was in second grade, my
teacher, Mrs. Sharp, would pull me out of the reading circle and have me draw
on giant rolls of butcher paper instead. She kept everything I drew.
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
Later that semester, we went on a field trip to downtown San Francisco to visit
City Hall and the Board of Education building. To my great surprise, there was
an exhibit of all my work hanging in the halls! My fellow students were very
impressed, and I was immensely proud as well. That first exhibit made it clear
to me that I would grow up to become an artist.
That same year, my mother took me to the dentist. While we waited in the
reception area, I picked up a photo book by Douglas Duncan called The Private
Life of Picasso. The beautiful black and white photos showed a shirtless old man
who painted and played like a child. He also had doves, several dogs and a goat.
I turned and said to my mom, “When I grow up I want to be that old man.”
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
“That’s Pablo Picasso,” she said. “Es loco” [“You’re crazy”]. My dear mother
did not discourage me; I knew better. The old man Columbus was not crazy
but rather unconventional and free, which inspired me profoundly to later live
my own life in that manner. I eventually went to the California College of Arts
5
in Oakland were I got a B.F.A. in printmaking and taught for two years. I also
worked for ten years at La Raza Silkscreen Center producing posters for
cultural and political events.
All these experiences have contributed to my personal and artistic growth.
I see this play as a result of everything I have ever learned in regard to the visual
and theatrical arts. It is a perfect and natural marriage for me. A play that I was
born to perform starting now. It is a culmination of everything I’ve known since
I was a curious child. And yes, I still don’t read very well. Thank you, Mrs. Sharp!
MB: Would you talk about your process as an actor and playwright in creating
the play? Where does the painter-artist Herbert Siguenza figure into this stage
equation?
HS: I don’t have a formal education in theatre but rather, as I said, a degree in
art. To a certain extent that has been very liberating, because I never overthink
or analyze what I do. I simply act on a real instinctive level, free from academic
philosophies. I just do. My character of Picasso is not an imitation of Picasso
because that would be false or impossible. My character of Picasso is me as a
rich, old man who paints and lives in southern France. It’s simple and direct.
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
After 30 years of performing comedy and drama on stage, I feel ready to take
on the challenge of portraying an icon. I could never have portrayed him ten
years ago, you know? I wasn’t ready to take on such a giant character. He is
[Shakespeare’s] Falstaff or Big Papa from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Now on the
script, I took all the quotes Picasso said during his lifetime and constructed an
imaginary weekend in 1957 in his studio, La Californie. I wanted to recreate the
sights and sounds of the pictures I saw in Duncan’s wonderful photographs.
My only goal as a playwright was for the audience to experience and feel like
they are spending an intimate weekend with a master, a genius but also a
Spanish man in exile.
Picasso said that viewing art is a kind of voyeurism. I think viewing theatre is
even more voyeuristic, because we are seeing people in their most private
moments. In my play I want no separation between performer and audience.
The audience is a participant and the reason for the play. There are only a few
moments where the audience “is not there” and watches Picasso at his most
private and most vulnerable. As a painter I am also vulnerable, I paint and
create in front of the audience. No safety net, no gimmicks – just magic and
truth in action. Like my acting, I just do it without thinking. I think Picasso
would be proud of me.
MB: Picasso’s relationship with 20th-century political movements was complex
and you explore that struggle in your play. Can you characterize that epic “tug
and pull” between art and politics that manifested itself in Picasso’s work?
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of
A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
HS: Picasso’s long-time friend Jaime Sabartés said that, “Picasso is the most
apolitical person I know.” I think to a certain degree it was true. Even though
Picasso was a member of the French Communist Party and contributed to
many leftist causes, he wasn’t politically or physically involved. He was sort of
a communist from afar. As long as he could paint what he wanted in freedom,
he was content being in the party for idealistic reasons.
6
He was an artist first and foremost and an activist second. I have struggled with that “tug and pull” in my own life as a Chicano/Latino
actor-activist. At one point you have to decide what you were meant to do in this life, you know? Are you an artist or a politician?
Picasso remained free and true to his style, he never succumbed to the pressures of the party to paint in a social realist manner.
I believe theatre that is didactic and pounds you over the head is the worst kind of theatre and does not accomplish what
it wants to do in the first place: make people think. If art does the thinking for you, what’s the use? That’s why Guernica is so
amazingly powerful and eternal. It’s politically charged but aesthetically transcendental.
During the Cold War, Picasso did not fan the fire of nuclear destruction but rather was a global peace campaigner and
contributed art and financial donations to many peace organizations and social causes. In fact, the iconography of the peace
movement – the doves, flowers, children that are used today – was first created by Picasso in the late ’50s.
Picasso was a humanist who just happened to be a communist. We are lucky because Guernica, the peace dove, the hands
holding flowers were created as if a child had drawn them, and that is why it has lasted so long because it connects with our
inner child full of joy, happiness and hope.
This interview originally appeared in the Alley Theatre’s program for A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.
THE ARTIST
Pablo Picasso is one of the best known and most widely praised artists of the 20th century,
but beyond creating pieces of art that resonated with large audiences and constantly pushing
the boundaries of what “art” is, Picasso pushed other artists to discover new forms, mediums,
and styles of creation that would forever change the way artists and audiences connected to
works of art. Picasso’s unyielding dedication to discovering the endless possibilities of artistic
expression made him the one of the most influential figures in the art world, then and now.
THE BLUE AND ROSE PERIODS
“I began to paint in blue, when I realized that Casagemas had died.” – Pablo Picasso
Paul Gauguin, important artist to the
symbolist movement, 1891.
Fernande Olivier, French model and lover
of Picasso.
In 1895 Picasso attended La Lonja School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, Spain, and was later accepted
to The Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid where he was trained primarily in the classical
style – which focused on the ideals of Greek and Roman antiquity like verisimilitude and
perspective – but after encountering Spanish Modernism and other experimental styles,
he abandoned classicism for some time, in order to explore other styles.
In the early years of Picasso’s career he was highly influenced by artists like Paul Gauguin and
the style of symbolism. Symbolism was a reaction against the cold objective nature of
naturalism and realism that began in France in the 1850s; while naturalism and realism sought
to portray the world as it is, symbolism sought to move past the objective truth and capture
a subjective emotional or spiritual meaning without any specific technical or style tenets. This
can be seen extensively in Picasso’s Blue Period, which began around 1901 after a close friend
of Picasso’s, Carlos Casagemas, committed suicide. In Picasso’s Blue Period a theme of somber,
cool colors appears and depictions of social outcasts and the downtrodden dominate his
paintings. Picasso remained in his Blue Period until around 1904 when he met Fernande
Olivier, a French model who remained his mistress for almost a decade. Picasso then transitioned into his Rose Period; he and close friend Laurence Olivier frequented the Circus Médrano
in Paris, whose warm vibrant colors and exaggerated performers started to creep into his
works and overcome the cool tones and downturned angles of the Blue Period, first revealing
a sense of playfulness that would continue throughout his career.
7
AFRICAN INFLUENCES AND CUBISM
“Cubism is no different from any other school of painting. The same principles and the same
elements are common to all. The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood
and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing.”
– Pablo Picasso
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s
production of A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.
Photo by Darren Scott.
Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s
production of A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.
Photo by Darren Scott.
With the expansion of France into Sub-Saharan Africa in the late 19th century arose a
deep, though arguably misplaced, interest in African art across Europe. Several pieces of
African art and sculpture were placed on display in the Louvre and by chance Picasso was
sold a set of Iberian sculptures that were stolen from the Louvre – and later returned –
by Géry Piéret. Picasso seems to have been deeply influenced by the elongated and
geometrical forms of the Iberian sculptures as well as an African art exhibit he saw in
France at the ethnographic museum at Palais de Trocadéro, and shortly afterward created
one of his most famous paintings, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Demoiselles depicts
five nude women: one of the women exhibits a quasi-Egyptian style, completely in profile,
that is reminiscent of the Pharaohs, two are considerably average, and two appear to be
largely derivative of the Iberian sculptures and the African masks he saw – though Picasso
vehemently denied any African inspiration.
Demoiselles, whose subjects are largely segmented and one-dimensional, also marks
Picasso’s first foray into cubism, a style he helped pioneer that was revolutionary in its
rejection of single point perspective and its focus on geometricity. Demoiselles is an
example of early Analytical Cubism, in which the subject is fragmented into several
geometrical shapes – mainly cubes, spheres, and cones – that intermix with the background, nearly merging into one another. Analytical Cubism, which became prominent in
1909, embraces muted palettes composed of mostly earth tones, the colors tending to
follow naturally into one another while maintaining only a slight edge to each individual
shape. Analytical Cubism also rejected the convention of single perspective painting by
depicting a subject from different angles and in different light simultaneously on a single
plane, causing the different angles to intersect and overlap. In 1909, Picasso created the
first cubist sculpture – the head of his lover Fernande Olivier – in which he adjusted the
relationship of the head and the neck and placed them both on a diagonal plane.
Once Picasso felt that the limitations of Analytical Cubism had been fully explored, he
ventured into the creation of Synthetic Cubism, which reclaimed bright, bold colors and
explored the use of other materials such as bits of paper and rope as ways to create
abstraction and texture. Synthetic Cubism is sometimes referred to as Collage Cubism,
because it often starts with material(s) pasted onto a canvas which are then painted on
and around to create a multi-textural collage. In this way Synthetic Cubism creates a whole
out of many pieces, in opposition to the tenets of earlier Analytical Cubism which works
to break a whole into many pieces. Synthetic Cubism also diverges from Analytical Cubism
in that it removes the need for intellectual importance and instead allows the work to
achieve a playful, whimsical nature that Synthetic Cubists felt was more “real,” because it
did in fact contain bits of real life (e.g. newspaper, rope, wrappers). It was at this time that
Picasso began working with constructed sculpture, in which he would use found objects
to assemble a sculpture rather than molding the sculpture from a single material; this work
is now regarded as the foundation of modern sculpture technique and creation.
8
CLASSICISM
“The art of the Greeks, of the Egyptians, of the great painters who lived in other times, is not an art of the past;
perhaps it is more alive today than it ever was.” – Pablo Picasso
While Synthetic Cubism displayed a revival of the playfulness seen in Picasso’s Rose Period, the onset of World War I seems
to have put on strain on his sense of whimsy, and his paintings became steadily more realistic and somber. In 1917, Picasso
traveled to Rome with Jean Cocteau to create decor for the ballet Parade; while there he visited the ruins of Pompeii and saw
for the first time the true splendor that antiquity had to offer. It was also at this time that Picasso was introduced to Olga
Khokhlova, whom he married in 1918, and began living the life of an upper-class husband. It appears that the combination of
the war, his experiences in Italy, and his newfound social status brought Picasso back around to more “respectable” forms of
art, and he returned to the classical style of his early artistic education.
Picasso’s Portrait of Olga in an Armchair (1918) is a far cry from the fragmentation and single-point perspective of cubism, and
notably lacking in abstract elements. This retreat into “safe” classicism gained Picasso profound fame in the mid-1920s, but it
made him feel unoriginal as an artist and undeserving of the praise. As a result of this, Picasso strained against classicism and
his wife Olga; he moved back to experimenting with new forms and in 1927 began an affair with 17-year-old, Marie-Thérèse Walter.
SURREALISM
“I keep doing my best not to lose sight of nature. I want to aim at similarity, a profound similarity
which is more real than reality, thus becoming surrealist.” – Pablo Picasso
Surrealism was most popular during the time between the two world wars, an artistic recognition that intense trauma could
completely overcome logic and reason, and so surrealists sought to unlock the subconscious mind and circumvent rationality.
Surrealism literally means “above realism,” and thus seeks to capture something more true than the limitations of realism can
access. Surrealism is often described as a depiction of the psychology and emotion of or about a subject, and has very few
boundaries when it comes to technique. Some of Picasso’s most popular surrealist works, starting around 1927, are of his
mistress Marie-Thérèse, dramatically emphasizing the soft curves of her body in joyful lavenders and blues, while making
her blond hair a prominent element; from this representation the viewer can see the way Picasso thinks and feels about
Marie-Thérèse rather than what she actually looks like.
However, it wasn’t until the next decade that Picasso would create what is generally considered to be his most inspired
surrealist work in Guernica (1937). Picasso’s Guernica is often regarded as his most important painting, representative of his
reaction to German and Italian warplanes dropping bombs in Northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War. With its black and
white color palette and fragmented chaos, Guernica combines elements of both Analytical Cubism and Synthetic Cubism in a
surrealist style, making it a synthesis of several of Picasso’s most important innovations in the world of art.
Pablo Picasso lived through nearly a century of world history and artistic styles, always adapting and always in pursuit of his
own creativity. As a result of this endless pursuit, Picasso co-founded cubism alongside Georges Braque, pioneered constructed
sculpture, co-founded the art of collage, and solidly established himself as one of the most famous and inspiring artists of the
20th century. Picasso’s paintings are, to this day, some of the most sought after works ever created, some selling for over $100
million; according to the Art Loss Register, more of his paintings have been stolen than any other artist, totaling approximately
550 stolen pieces. His unwillingness to submit to prescribed notions of what art should be made him one of the rare artists to
gain immense acclaim during his lifetime, and continuing after his death in 1973.
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PICASSO’S WHO’S WHO
Andre Breton, the founder
of surrealism
Jean Cocteau, French
artist, designer and writer,
1923
Gary Cooper, American
film actor
Gustave Courbet, leader
of the 19th-century realist
movement, 1860s Portrait
by Étienne Carjat
Béla Czóbel, member of
“The Eight ”
Salvador Dalí, Spanish
surrealist painter with his
pet ocelot, Babou, 1960s
Eugène Delacrois, French
romantic artist
Max Jacob, a close friend
of Picasso
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler,
one of the top art dealers
of the 20th century
Henri Matisse, French
artist, 1933 Photo by
Carl Van Vechten
Portrait of Michaelangelo,
by Daniele da Volterra,
1565
Claude Monet, founder
of French impressionism
Photo by Nadar
Jackson Pollock,
American abstract
expressionist painter
Raphael, part of the
traditional trinity of great
Renaissance masters
alongside Michelangelo
and Leonardo da Vinci
Jaime Sabartés, close
friend and secretary of
Pablo Picasso
Gertrude Stein, American
writer Portrait by Carl Van
Vechten, 1934
Luc de Clapiers, marquis
de Vauvenargues
Diego Velázquez, self
portrait, 1640
André Breton (1896-1966): French writer/poet and founder of surrealism He wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963): French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker best known for his novel Les Enfants
Terribles (1929) and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus
(1949) He wrote the scenario for the ballet Parade (1917), for which Picasso designed the sets
Gary Cooper (1901-1961): American film actor who won two Academy Awards for Best Actor in Sergeant York and High Noon.
He eventually appeared in more than 100 films, including westerns, crime stories, comedy and drama
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877): French painter and leader of the 19th-century realist movement in French painting His rejection
of academic convention and romanticism paved the way for later artists to innovate from classical form and technique,
particularly influential in the development of impressionism and cubism
Béla Czóbel (1883-1976): Hungarian painter and member of “The Eight,” an avant-garde movement known for introducing
post-impressionist forms into Hungary, including Fauvism, cubism, and expressionism
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989): Spanish surrealist painter who revered Picasso as his “artistic father,” but later challenged him
saying he was a “destroyer” of art, concerned with ugliness, while Dalí embraced beauty; the two were noted as having a
rather strained relationship
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Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863): French romantic artist whose painting style greatly influenced the later impressionists.
Delacroix’s 1834 harem scene The Women of Alger (In Their Apartment) inspired Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger series of 15
paintings. Picasso later married Delacroix’s model, Jacqueline Roque, in 1961.
Max Jacob (1876-1944): French artist and critic and one of Picasso’s first friends in Paris, the two young artists shared an
apartment on the Boulevard Voltaire. Jewish by birth, Jacob converted to Catholicism in 1909, but was nonetheless arrested
by the Gestapo in 1944 and died in Drancy internment camp.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979): One of the premier French art dealers of the 20th century whose gallery opened in
Paris in 1907 and who championed Picasso and other cubist artists. Picasso said, “What would have become of us if Kahnweiler
hadn’t had a business sense?”
Henri Matisse (1869-1954): French artist, painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor, known particularly for his use of
color and his fluid, original draughtsmanship (or drawing). Along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, Matisse is regarded
as one of the revolutionary developers of the plastic arts in the early 20th century, which had lasting significance on painting
and sculpture.
Michaelangelo (1475-1564): Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet and engineer of the High Renaissance, widely considered
to be one of the greatest artists of all time, with an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
Claude Monet (1840-1926): The founder of French Impressionist painting, a style which rose to prominence in the 1870s and
1880s and utilizes small, thin, visible brush strokes, open composition, an emphasis on the accurate depiction of light, ordinary
subjects, unusual visual angles, and the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience.
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956): American painter influential to the abstract expressionist movement, known for his unique style
of drip painting. During his lifetime he was regarded as reclusive and volatile, and was killed in 1956 in a single-car alcoholrelated accident while driving.
Raphael (1483-1520): Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance whose work is admired for its clarity of form, ease
of composition and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur; considered part of the traditional trinity
of great Renaissance masters alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Jaime Sabartés (1881-1968): Spanish artist, writer, and close friend of Picasso who became Picasso’s secretary in 1939.
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946): American writer, poet, and art collector whose prestigious salon in Paris in the early 20th century
brought together many artists, including Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Max Jacob, James Joyce, Sinclair
Lewis, Henri Matisse and Thornton Wilder.
Vauvenargues (1715-1747): Reference to Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, a minor French moralist and writer, best
known for his friendship with Voltaire and a collection of essays published in 1746 from which derive many popular
aphorisms.
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660): Spanish Baroque painter and leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age and court of King Philip
IV. In 1957 Picasso painted 58 variations on Velázquez’s most famous creation, Las Meninas.
Partial content created by Danielle Ward, and originally appeared in San Diego REPertory Theatre’s program for A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.
PICASSO’S WOMEN
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” - Pablo Picasso
Alongside his fame as a pioneer of artistic style and an artist of immense influence, part of Picasso’s eccentric celebrity
persona included his reputation as a consummate womanizer, his transfer of affections made manifest in his art by the frequent
portrayal of his wives and mistresses in his work. Notable transitions in his artistic style often include influences or artistic
references to the world around him, including dramatic changes in his personal life.
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Fernande Olivier, French
model and lover of Picasso,
sometime between 1910
and 1917.
Fernande Olivier (1881-1966) was a French artist and model when she met Picasso in 1904 at La
Bateau-Lavoir, famous as the residence and meeting place for 20th-century artists, writers, actors and
art dealers. By 1905 she was living with Picasso, with whom she would share a relationship for seven
years; both were noted for being jealous lovers and their relationship was a dramatic one, which sometimes strayed into violence. In 1907, Fernande adopted a 13-year-old girl from a local orphanage, to
which the girl was returned after Fernande discovered explicit drawings of Picasso’s featuring the child.
Many of Picasso’s cubist works from 1907-1909 were inspired by Fernande, though as he began to gain
success, his interest in her waned as a reminder of his more difficult times. The two separated in 1912,
leaving Fernande financially unable to maintain the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed
with Picasso. The only one of Picasso’s mistresses to have known him before his fame and fortune,
Fernande published a memoir of their relationship in 1930 entitled Picasso et ses amis (Picasso and his
Friends), published in serial in the Belgian daily Le Soir; only six articles were released before Picasso’s
lawyers curtailed the publication. In 1956, Fernande persuaded Picasso to pay her a small pension in
exchange for her promise not to publish anything more about their relationship, a promise she kept
until her death in 1966.
Eva Gouel (1885-1915) met Picasso in 1912 while he was still living with Fernande Olivier. Although Eva
(born Marcelle Humbert) does not appear directly in his paintings, she is referred to in word fragments
in some of his cubist works. In early 1915, Eva fell ill with tuberculosis; her death in December of that
year plunged Picasso into a deep depression.
Eva Gouel, born Marcelle
Humbert, 1910s.
Gabrielle Depeyre (1888-1970) provided solace for Picasso during the sickness and after the death of
his lover Eva Gouel, the pair carrying on a secret affair in 1915-1916 that was revealed by art historian
John Richardson in 1987. Gabrielle refused what Richardson asserts to have been a proposal of marriage
from Picasso, instead marrying artist Herbert Lepinasse in 1917.
Picasso and Gaby Dupeyre,
1915-1916.
Ballerina Olga Khokhlova,
Picasso’s first wife.
Olga Khalokhov (1981-1955) first met Picasso in Paris in 1917, while performing as a ballerina in Parade,
for which he had designed the sets. Rather than continuing on with the ballet, which toured to South
America, Olga stayed in Barcelona with Picasso before returning with him to Paris. The two were
married on July 12, 1918, and she gave birth to their son, Paulo, in 1921. Olga’s wealth and nobility raised
Picasso’s profile in society and spurred his return to a more classical style of painting, which started to
grate on him as an artist as their marriage deteriorated in parallel. In 1927, Picasso began an affair with
17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter, carrying on in secret until Marie-Thérèse’s pregnancy was revealed
to Olga by a friend in 1935. Deeply hurt, Olga moved with Paulo to the South of France and immediately
filed for divorce. However, French law designated that upon divorce, a couple’s assets must be divided
equally; Picasso refused to part with half of his significant wealth, so the two remained legally married
in their separation until Olga’s death from cancer in 1955.
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Picasso with Marie-Thérèse
Walter, 1930s.
Dora Maar, Self-portrait,
1930.
Francoise Gilot, mother to
Picasso’s children Claude
and Paloma, 1942.
Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s
second wife.
Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977) first met Picasso in Paris in 1927 at the age of 17, while he was still
married to Olga Khokhlova, the mother of his then five-year-old. Marie-Thérèse became Picasso’s model
and muse, appearing in many of his works as a bright, blonde and sunny presence. Their secret affair
came to light in 1935, while Marie-Thérèse was pregnant with their daughter Maya, born in September
of that year. Shortly after Maya’s birth, Picasso met and fell in love with surrealist photographer Dora
Maar, who became Marie-Thérèse’s rival for his affections. A popular story recounts the two women
meeting accidentally in Picasso’s studio while he was painting Guernica; when they demanded that he
chose between them, he told them to fight it out amongst themselves, at which point the women began
to wrestle. In 1940, Marie moved with Maya to Paris, where she continued to be financially supported by
Picasso. She committed suicide by hanging herself on October 20, 1977, four years after Picasso’s death.
Dora Maar (1907-1997) met Picasso through a mutual friend, the famous poet Paul Éluard, in a restaurant
in Paris in 1936, when she was 28 years old and he was 54. Maar was already known as a photographer
and less so as a painter and a poet, and she fascinated Picasso with her beauty, daring, and fluent
Spanish. A popular story recounts that Picasso first noticed her playing “the knife game” in which one
attempts to rapidly stab a knife back and forth between one’s splayed fingers, with the hand
palm-down on a table; she missed, stabbing herself and staining her white glove with blood, which
Picasso later kept in his apartment. In contrast to the sunny beauty of Picasso’s paintings of
Marie-Thérèse, he frequently portrayed Dora as a sad, suffering “woman in tears.” Their affair lasted
nine years, ending in 1943 when Picasso moved on to the younger Francoise Gilot. Distressed by her
abandonment, Dora Maar was sent by friends to receive psychiatric care from Jacques Lacan as she
struggled to re-establish her emotional stability, complicated by the sudden death of her best friend
Nusch Éluard in 1946. She eventually returned to her old social circle, reaffirming her faith in Roman
Catholicism and dividing her time between Paris and the house that Picasso had given her in Provence.
She continued to write poetry and practice photography until her death in 1997.
Francoise Gilot (b. 1921) also met Picasso in a restaurant, in the spring of 1943. A young artist herself,
she moved in with him in 1946 and the couple had two children together in their ten-year relationship:
Claude and Paloma. Though Picasso greatly influenced Gilot’s work as a cubist painter, she slowly developed her own artistic style, favoring organic figures over the sharp edges and angular forms of Picasso’s
work. In 1953, Picasso’s affections transferred to his next lover, Jacqueline Roque, leaving Gilot to create
her own way as an independent woman and artist. She married artist Luc Simon in 1955 with whom she
had a daughter, Aurelia, before the pair divorced in 1962. In 1963, Francoise published Life with Picasso,
her account of their extraordinary love affair; Picasso unsuccessfully challenged its publication, but
henceforth refused to see Claude or Paloma ever again. Francoise remarried in 1970 to Jonas Salk, the
pioneer of the polio vaccine, with whom she would remain until his death in 1995. She continues to paint,
her work exhibited as recently as May 2012 at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City.
Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986) met Picasso in 1953 where she worked at the Madoura Pottery in
Vallauris, France, when she was 27 years old and he was 72. The story goes that he drew a dove on her
house in chalk and brought her a single rose every day until she agreed to date him six months later.
She began to appear in Picasso’s paintings as early as 1954; he depicted her dark eyes and eyebrows,
high cheekbones, and classical profile in increasingly abstracted forms until 1972. Though Picasso had
serious relationships with many women throughout his life, he was still officially married to Olga
Khokhlova until her death in 1955; Jacqueline Roque became his second wife in 1961, until his death in
1973. After his death, Jacqueline and Francoise fought viciously over the distribution of his estate,
eventually agreeing to mutually establish the Musée Picasso in Paris. Jacqueline committed suicide by
gunshot in 1986, at the age of 59.
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Herbert Siguenza in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. Photo by Darren Scott.
PICASSO’S WORLD VIEW
“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” – Pablo Picasso
Originally born in Spain, Pablo Picasso spent much of the time in between his Blue Period and his Rose Period travelling between
Barcelona and Paris, experiencing the distinct artistic environments in the two cities. When he moved permanently to France in
1904, he began experimenting with a more avant-garde form of painting, as opposed to his previous classically-inspired style; his
piece Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) is considered a proto-cubist work, one of the first clear examples of the artistic ingenuity
that would come to characterize Picasso’s entire career. By 1911, Picasso was considered the inventor of cubism; inspired by
African and Native American work, its colors are much more vibrant and the shapes more abstract than in earlier artistic styles.
In 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, an incident
which quickly escalated into World War I, an international conflict unprecedented in scale and destruction. While the world
around him shook, Picasso delved into the chaos through continued exploration in new forms of artistic expression. One of the
major influential political movements of the time was dadaism, an avant-garde political and artistic movement characterized
by collage and abstraction, with the subject of such works being freed from “normalcy.” The movement was largely anti-war
and anti-bourgeois, and its influences were made manifest by many of the major artists of Europe. Because Picasso’s home
in Avignon was not in an active war zone, he was able to continue his work uninterrupted, exploring the anti-aesthetic,
anti-idealism facets of dadaism that would later give way to the slightly more focused yet still unconventional techniques
of surrealism in the 1920s. By 1916, Picasso’s work was predominantly dadaist and pre-surrealist in composition, exemplified
in pieces such as The Three Dancers (1925) and Nude on a Beach (1929).
After the First World War ended and the German, Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires were left destitute, a new sociopolitical tone overtook the art of the era. New Objectivity ushered in a business-like and simple form of art characterized by its
simplicity, and the Novecento Italiano form in Italy was born out of the fascist movement of 1923; it was considered an artistic
“call to order,” which denounced the abstract expressionism of the previous decade. Picasso returned briefly to his classical roots,
but the tumult and unrest in the world around him, as well as in his personal life, ultimately led him to more surrealist creations.
One of Picasso’s most influential pieces of surrealist work was inspired by the Spanish Civil War. After the upheaval of World
War I, the Spanish people felt oppressed by the new Second Spanish Republic. In 1936, José Sanjurjo and the Nationalists
declared open opposition to the government, obtaining reinforcements from early Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and
ultimately installed General Francisco Franco as Head of the Spanish State, a position he would fill until his death in 1975.
In the takeover, 4,000 civilians lost their lives in an aerial attack by the Nationalists on a small town called Guernica, thought
to be the first air raid on a defenseless civilian population. Greatly moved by the political turmoil, Picasso painted furiously
during the Spanish Civil War, giving the world pieces like The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937) and Guernica (1937), which is
thought to be his first overtly political piece. Francisco Franco officially exiled Picasso from Spain because of his artistic
outspokenness, leaving Picasso to grapple with his ejection from his homeland.
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At the same time, Nazi Germany began to rise to power. As the Axis Powers began taking over Europe, the strict censorship
enforced by the Nazis stifled much of the art world. They considered Picasso’s art to be “degenerate,” forcing Picasso to paint
in secret in Nazi-occupied France. While he was never arrested, Picasso was very clear about his distaste for the Nazi Party
and their politics; a famous story asserts that once a German officer entered Picasso’s apartment and, upon seeing a photo of
Guernica, asked, “Did you do that?” to which Picasso responded, “No, you did.”
Despite the Nazi presence in France, Picasso continued to paint through World War II, denouncing the Nazi Party through his
art until August of 1944, when the French Resistance staged an uprising that drove the Nazis from Paris and restored France
to a Republic. It was during this period that he also took up writing as a creative outlet, producing more than 300 poems
between 1935 and 1939.
After the French Liberation, Picasso became an official member of the French Communist Party. His membership was invaluable
as his name and fame raised their cause to international prominence. Picasso considered his party membership an inclusion in
a family rather than as a strictly political move, having felt isolated and displaced since his exile from Spain in 1939, and he
remained a loyal member until his death in 1973.
GLOSSARY
Abhorrence: A strong feeling of revulsion, or disgusted loathing.
Beethoven: Ludwig van Beethoven was a prolific German composer and pianist, crucial in the
transition from the Classical to the Romantic era in Western art music, and one of the most
influential composers of all time.
Café: Spanish word for “coffee.”
German composer, Ludwig van
Beethoven. Portrait by Joseph Karl
Stieler, 1820.
Caste: Any class or group of people perceived as socially distinct; a hierarchical division of
society that determines exclusive privileges based upon socio-economic, religious, political,
or a combination of categorizations.
Cessation: The fact or process of ending or being brought to an end; termination.
Dichotomy: A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being
directly opposed or entirely different.
Diphtheria: An acute, highly contagious bacterial disease causing inflammation of the mucous
membranes and the formation of a false membrane in the throat which hinders breathing and
swallowing, as well as potentially fatal heart and nerve damage.
Map depicting the location of Gibraltar.
Espadrillas: Casual, usually flat shoes originating in the Pyrenees, consisting of a canvas or
cotton fabric upper and a flexible sole made of jute rope.
Gibraltar: A British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranian,
captured from Spain in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession on behalf of the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne
and ceded to Britain in 1713.
Gouloises: A French brand of short, wide, unfiltered cigarette made with dark tobaccos from Syria and Turkey which produce
a strong, distinctive aroma.
Guernica: One of Pablo Picasso’s most enduring paintings, created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Spain, by German
and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
Inundate: To overwhelm with things or people to be dealt with; to flood.
Joder: The Spanish equivalent of the English F-word, often used figuratively to refer to something “screwed up.”
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Joseph Stalin: Leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953; Picasso
once portrayed Stalin as a bouquet of flowers, and was heavily criticized for the unrealistic
portrait. A self-declared Communist, Picasso took offense at the criticism and distanced
himself from Soviet politics.
La Californie: The name of Picasso’s villa in the hills above Cannes, France, where he moved in
1955 with Jacqueline Roque, who would become his second wife.
Labyrinth: A complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find
one’s way; a maze.
Lyre: A stringed instrument similar to a small, U-shaped harp with strings fixed to a crossbar,
used especially in ancient Greece.
Manifesto: A public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued by a political party
or candidate, often before an election.
A lyre.
Matador: A bullfighter, whose task it is to kill the bull.
Metamorphosis: A change in form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.
Mosque: A Muslim house of worship.
Pablito: Spanish for “little Pablo,” a nickname.
Paloma: Picasso’s daughter by his mistress, Francoise Gilot, born in 1949, now a French fashion
designer and businesswoman known for her jewelry designs and her signature perfumes.
Panettone: A type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan, usually prepared for Christmas
and New Year in parts of Europe.
Panettone.
Pope: Head of the Roman Catholic Church, and the bishop of Rome, Italy.
Prism: A solid geometric figure whose two end faces are similar, equal, and parallel rectilinear
figures and whose sides are parallelograms, especially an object that is transparent and triangular with refracting surfaces that separate white light into a spectrum of colors; used
figuratively to refer to the clarification or distortion afforded by a particular viewpoint.
Proverb: A short, popular saying that states a general truth, lesson, or piece of advice; an adage.
Receptacle: An object, container or device that receives or holds something.
Shakespeare: English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer and
dramatist in the English language.
Treaty of Burgos: Declaration of Nationalist victory made by General Francisco Franco from
Burgos, Spain, on April 1, 1939, ending the Spanish Civil War and initiating the Nationalists’
forty-year reign of brutal Francoist authoritarianism.
Voyeur: A person who derives sexual pleasure from observing sexual objects or acts, especially
from a secret vantage point.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What was your perception of Pablo Picasso, as a person or an artist, before seeing the play? Did that perception
or opinion change after seeing this play? What did you learn about the man?
2. How did the actor combine visual art with performance? What effect does his act of painting on stage
have on the audience experience?
3. How does Picasso define his art?
4. Why do you think Picasso experienced such success as an artist during his lifetime? How does he feel about
his celebrity?
5. Do you think art and politics mix? Can you think of specific instances of when that mix was successful?
6. Describe the significance of Picasso’s Guernica. What was its political impact?
7. How would you describe Picasso’s attitude towards women? His thoughts on love? Do you agree or disagree with him?
8. What was your favorite design element of the show? How did the set, lights, costumes, sound and props contribute
to the playwright’s story?
9. Describe the role of the audience in this play. Was the experience different than other theatre events you’ve
attended? How did it affect your connection to the character and story?
LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITIES
Use some, or all, of the following prompt questions to generate ideas for a piece of writing inspired by a Picasso painting
of your choosing.
Describe
1. What words would you use to describe this art work?
2. How would you describe the lines, shapes and colors?
3. What observations can you make about it?
4. How would you describe this artwork to a person who cannot see it?
Relate
5. What does this remind you of? What things do you recognize in this artwork?
What interests you most about this work of art?
Analyze
6. What can you tell me about the colors in this piece? What color is used most?
7. Is the work realistic or abstract?
8. What question(s) would you ask the artist about this work if they were here?
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Interpret
9. What other titles could you give the work?
10. What sounds could this work make?
11. What do you think this work is about?
Evaluate
12. What makes this work ‘good’?
13. What is troublesome about this work?
14. What is worth remembering about this work of art?
Writing Prompt
15. If this artwork could speak, what would it say?
THEATRE ARTS ACTIVITIES
Using the writing prompt from the Language Arts Activity listed above to generate ideas, create an original monologue
or piece of performance – dance or movement, a song, a short scene or group activity – inspired by a Picasso painting of
your choice. Perform these original pieces in class. Did any common performance elements or themes emerge? Could those
performance pieces be curated and presented to the public the same way visual art is curated and presented in a museum?
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