Bull
( Plate I. - December 5 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
Museum
of Modern Art, New York
Animals
in Art
Pablo Picasso created 'Bull' around the Christmas of 1945.
'Bull' is a suite of eleven lithographs that have become
a master class in how to develop an artwork from the academic
to the abstract. In this series of images, all pulled
from a single stone, he visually dissects the image of
a bull to discover its essential presence through a progressive
analysis of its form. Each plate is a successive stage
in an investigation to find the absolute 'spirit' of the
beast.
To
start the series, Picasso creates a lively and realistic
brush drawing of the bull in lithographic ink. It is a
fresh and spontaneous image that lays the foundations
for the developments to come.
Picasso
used the bull as a metaphor throughout his artwork but
he refused to be pinned down as to its meaning. Depending
on its context, it has been interpreted in various ways:
as a representation of the Spanish people; as a comment
on fascism and brutality; as a symbol of virility; or
as a reflection of Picasso's self image.
Bull
( Plate II. - December 12 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
At
the second stage of the lithograph, Picasso bulks up the
form of the bull to increase its expressive power and
achieve a more mythical presence.
Bull
( Plate III. - December 18 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
On
Plate III. the development takes a change of direction.
Picasso stops building the beast and starts to dissect
the creature with lines of force that follow the contours
of its muscles and skeleton. He cuts into the form of
the bull much in the same way as a butcher would cut up
a carcass. In fact, he was known to have joked with the
printers about this butcher analogy. Also at this stage,
Picasso introduces the use of a lithographic crayon to
add more detail to the surface texture of the animal's
skin. The overall effect is reminiscent of Dürer's
famous drawing of a rhinoceros.
Bull
( plate IV. - December 22 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
Plate
IV. sees the artist start to abstract the structure of the
bull by simplifying and outlining the major planes of its
anatomy.
Ten
years earlier Picasso had said that "A picture used
to be a sum of additions. In my case a picture is a sum
of destructions." In view of this statement, lithography
seems to be the most natural choice of media for this series
of prints. One of the technical advantages of lithography
over other printmaking techniques is that you can both add
to and subtract from the image with relative ease.
Bull
( plate V. - December 24 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
The
simplification and stylisation of the image continues on
Plate V. Picasso starts to erase sections of the bull in
order to redistribute the balance and reorganise the dynamics
between the front and the rear of the creature.
First,
he reduces its massive head and compresses its features
into the small area that was previously the bull's forehead.
By enlarging the eye and flattening its horns into a more
lyrical design, he creates a sharper focal point at the
front of the animal.
Next,
he erases a section of the back which has the counter effect
of raising the front. He literally underlines this change
with the bold white line that runs diagonally across the
animal, parallel to the new angle of the back. As a counterbalance
to this movement, he strengthens a line that runs in the
opposite direction across the middle of the body, parallel
to the shoulders at the front.
Picasso's
process of development is like building a house of cards
where balance and counterbalance of the individual elements
is crucial to the stability of the whole.
Bull
( plate VI. - December 26 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
At
this stage, another new head and tail are created to conform
to the style and direction of the developing image.
Picasso
introduces more curves to soften the network of lines that
crisscross the creature. Once again he adjusts the line
of the back which now begins as wave on the shoulders and
flows like a pulse of energy along the length of its body.
The two counterbalancing lines discussed in the previous
plate are extended down the front and back legs to act like
structural supports for the weight of the bull. All three
of these lines intersect at a point that suggests the bull's
centre of balance. Through the development of these drawings,
Picasso is beginning to understand the displacement of weight
and balance between the front and rear of the animal.
Bull
( plate VII. - December 28 1945 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
As
Picasso recognises the balance of form in the bull, he starts
to remove and simplify some of the lines of construction
that have served their function. He then encases the essential
elements that remain in a taut outline.
Bull
( plate VIII. - January 2 1946 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
Plate
VIII. continues the reduction and simplification of the
image into line with another reconfiguration of the head,
legs and tail.
Bull
( plate IX. - January 5 1946 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
While
continuing to have fun with the drawing of the head, Picasso
now erases the remaining areas of tone and finally reduces
the bull to a line drawing. Only the creature's reproductive
organ retains its shading in order to emphasise its gender.
Bull
( plate X. - January 10 1946 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
At
this penultimate stage, the more complex areas of the line
drawing are removed to leave only a few basic lines and
shapes that characterise the fundamental forces and correlation
of forms in the creature.
Bull
( plate XI. - January 17 1946 )
(eleven developments of a lithograph)
In
the final print of the series, Picasso reduces the bull
to a simple outline that is so carefully considered through
the progressive development of each image, that it captures
the absolute essence of the creature in as concise an image
as possible.
Pablo
Picasso Facts
-
Picasso, along with Georges Braque, developed Cubism,
the first abstract art form.
- Bulls
often appear in Picasso's work. He uses them as symbols
to represent various ideas: the Spanish people, power,
virility, facism, brutality, and his own self image.
- Picasso's
work spans many styles from realism to abstraction.
- The
series of lithographic prints above are a master class
in how to develop an artwork from a realistic image
to an abstract form.
Drawing
Animals
Art
Appreciation
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