SchoolArts - February 2008

Learning

Galette
la

brighter and depicts more playful subject matter.
As his career progressed, Picasso continued to
experiment and created several iconic artworks.
Among the most significant is Les Demoiselles
D’Avignon, considered a pivotal work of modern
art because of the way it redefined the way art-
ists represent the human form. This painting
helped pave the way for Cubism, an innovative
style of art developed by Picasso and fellow art-
ist Georges Braque in which subjects are simul-
taneously depicted from
multiple perspectives.
Later in his career, the
artist challenged himself
in new ways, exploring

Neoclassicism (a style that revived classical art and ideas) and Surrealism (a movement aiming to visually depict the subconscious). Picasso continued to produce art until his death in 1973 at the age of 92. He left behind roughly 50,000 works.

In Le Moulin de la Galette, Picasso depicts the animated space of a crowded dance hall. The elegant patrons are fashionably dressed—women in fur coats and stylish hats, and men in tuxedos and top hats. Couples dance under glowing lights filling the center of the work with energy and movement. Onlookers, including the three gentlemen who hover above the crowd in

About the Artwork

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Looking

Moulin
Le

About the Artist

Pablo Ruiz Picasso, one of the most celebrated and influential artists of the twentieth century, was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His prolific career began at a young age thanks in large part to his father, Don José Ruiz Blasco, a painter, art teacher, and curator. Don José was the first to formally train his son and quickly recognized his talent. He once handed over his own paintbrushes to Picasso, admitting that his son at age thirteen was a ^better ^artist ^than ^he ^was. Le Moulin de la Galette was the first

^Picasso ^went ^on ^to ^study_at _several _art _schools _in painting Picasso created in Paris.

Spain, where professors referred to him as a child prodigy—he could finish exercises in one day that were intended to take a month. Despite this success, Picasso abandoned his formal art training when he was sixteen. This, however, did not prevent his art career from thriving. His first official exhibition opened in Barcelona when he was only nineteen.

Throughout his career, much of which he spent in Paris, Picasso experimented with a variety of media including painting, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, photography, and even stage design. He also explored many artistic styles. Early on, his Blue Period (1901–1904) works feature blue tones and melancholy themes, while his Rose Period (1905) art is