Posts Tagged ‘Picasso’

blues – looking at the blues

Posted: October 26, 2021 in galleries
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Two exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario feature the colour blue.  One is “Blue View” consisting of paintings created by Canadian artist Matthew Wong between 2017 and 2019.  The other is an exhibit of Picasso paintings at the beginning of the 20th century especially his “blue period” 1901-1904.

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Matthew Wong (1984-2019)

two women in an art gallery looking at paintings by Matthew Wong

below: “Starry Night”

starry Night, a painting by Matthew Wong

a small painting by Matthew Wong of an open doorway into a bathroom from a darkened bedroom

women looking at blue paintings by Matthew Wong

Matthew Wong paintings at the Art Gallery of Ontario

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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

below: Nudes painted before the Blue Period… and when Picasso was only 19 or 20 years old.

man looking at Picasso paintings at the AGO

In 1901 Picasso was given access to Saint-Lazare prison-hospital in Paris where he painted many of the inmates, especially the women who were there as a result of their participation in the sex trade.  They were impoverished and forgotten women living in deplorable conditions, often with young children.  Picasso painted them in shades of blue and green and in his paintings sex work, motherhood and syphilis become intertwined.  They can be compared to images of the Virgin Mary with an infant Jesus, a secularized Madonna.

below: “Mother and Child by Fountain”

Picasso's painting Mother and Child by a Fountain, on wall at Art Gallery of Ontario

below: “Woman and Child by the Sea”, 1902

painting by Picasso

below: “The Soup”, 1902

young woman looking at Picasso painting, The Soup

below: “The Blue Room”, 1901

two women with grey hair looking at Picasso painting from his blue period, woman getting a bath in small tub in middle of her room

below: “The Frugal Repast”.  Not in blue but still with the theme of the working poor.  This was an etching that Picasso first made in 1904.  Later, in 1913, he printed 250 copies of it.

older couple looking at picture by Picasso, in greys and browns,

two women looking at pictures at AGO

With thanks to Alice and Arlene for spending a couple of hours looking at paintings with me.

“Picasso, painting the blue period” continues until 16 Jan 2022.

Matthew Wong paintings are on display until 18 April 2022

dia de muertos

Posted: November 9, 2015 in events, people
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Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday where and friends come together to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.  It occurs at the end of October (31 Oct to 2 Nov).  Here in Toronto there was a Day of the Dead festival at Harbourfront this past weekend.

fabric hanging on a wall. There is a picture on the fabric of a woman's face painted white to look like a skull but with pink around the eys. Many orange roses surround her face

One of the traditions of Dia de Muertos is the making of ofrendas which are altars dedicated to the deceased person.  Jose Clemente Orozco was a Mexican painter (1883-1949).  He specialized in painting murals in frescoes and his work can be seen in Mexico and in the USA.

elaborate and colourful ofrenda with purple, blue and pink paper cut outs on the wall behind.
Another altar that was on display was one made by artist Alberto Cruz in honour of Pablo Picasso.

An ofrenda, or altar, in the memory of Pablo Picasso at a day of the dead festival. There is a photo of him surrounded by different objects and symbols representing his life and things that he did

The Casa Cultura Mexicana made an ofrenda to honour the Prehispanic indigenous people and warriors of Mexico.
The bottom part consisted of pictures made with coloured rice.

pictures made of coloured rice on an ofrenda dedicated to the indigenous people of Mexico

Food items such as rice, beans, and corns were an important part of the ofrenda.

a face shape made of dried beans and corn. red beans make a circle around the face, black beans make 6 rays coming out from the circle. The face is corn with bean features.

Ofrendas are decorated with sugar skulls and marigolds (or yellow and orange paper flowers) as well as candles, photos, momentos from the person’s life, and things that symbolize something about that person.  Sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical.

an ofrenda with a picture of a woman in a frame sitting on a table. One each side of her is an elaborately decorated skull. One of the skulls is wearing sunglasses and a wreath of yellow and orange flowers around the top of its head.

What would your friends and family put on an ofrenda in your memory?

objects on an ofrenda at a day of the dead celebration, decorated skulls, a small skeleton, some old photos of people, flowers, fruit,

There was also clay available if you wanted to make a small skull or other symbol for the occasion.

close up picture of a man putting details on a small clay skull with a toothpick

Two girls with day of the dead face paint on are making clay skulls. A young boy is also at the table making a skull, his mother is helping him.

A young man carefully adds tiny clay roses to a clay skull that he has made.

A small figurine made of a clay of a skeleton wearing a sombraro and playing a guitar is in the foreground, kids making clay skulls at a table are in the background.

skull painted white and then decorated with black, green, red and white

Rest in Peace.

ofrenda, altar, day of the dead celebration, woman's picture along with Virgin Mary candles and other pink cnadles, lots of orange flowers too