Historians of Picasso Blue

(1.1.2023) French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, for the first time, spoke of a Blue Period in the work of his companion and friend Pablo Picasso in a text of 1912, in which he, Apollinaire, digested the review of a Picasso exhibition, a text that he, Apollinaire, had published in 1905 (15 May, in La Plume). In this review of 1905 he had not spoken of a Blue Period, but of a »sudden shivering« of the artist Pablo Picasso, of something rather momentaneous that is, and it is interesting that, according to Pierre Daix, this review of 1905 actually refers to paintings which would belong to the période rose rather (or also to the période des Saltimbanques, which is considered to be a transition from the période bleue to the période rose). For Apollinaire, who, in 1912, also distinguished these two periods, in 1905, this was all one, one »sudden shivering«. And we will see why.

(Picture: Ricard Canals i Llambí)

One) Timeless Poetry versus Social History

What Guillaume Apollinaire did in his 1905 text was to mobilize – congenially – a lyrical tradition, the lyrical tradition of Symbolism, to highlight this »sudden shivering« in the work of his companion and friend Pablo Picasso, and modern art historians should ever be prepared to concede that what Apollinaire did in his writings was and is more congenial than what modern art historians may produce.
What Apollinaire did not do, was to mobilize social history (or biography), in his imaginative lyrical evocation, which is a review, because it does characterize, analyze and explain what the artist Pablo Picasso did do in his art, to his readership, and social history could not be of interest to Apollinaire, since what he is highlighting and aiming at – is timeless poetry (that deals with misery), not a specific historic scenery.
What did Apollinaire mean by speaking of a »sudden shivering«?
I would interpret that as saying that the artist Picasso, then in his twenties, had realized the timeless nature of human misery (around him, and also in his own life) and had began to reflect upon it in his art, not by displaying misery in a naturalistic manner, but by showing how men and women, and how children dealt with misery, poverty, disaster, individually, expressing – by bodily posture, by gestures etc. – how life had dealt with them, as well as they were trying to deal with life; all of which is reflected in the paintings of the Blue Period. But also in paintings of the Rose Period. In my view it does make more sense to see this »sudden shivering» as encompassing both periods, taking into account that in Picasso, as Apollinaire wrote in another review of 1905, the marvellous and the disastrous are mixed. This especially shows in the paradox double nature of the Saltimbanques, when role figure and individual posture of the human being, meant to display a certain role, are shown in conflicting relation.
In mobilizing the lyrical tradition of Symbolism, in which the color blue is of primary importance (the famous azure), Apollinaire neither neglected blue as indicating actual time of day (twilight, morning, plain daylight), nor the more symbolic aspect of blue. The color blue, in a double sense, thus played a role in ›inventing‹ the Blue Period (which may be partly Period Rose), because in Symbolism blue had been associated with inwardness, introspection, reflection, as well as it was indicating a period of time at the beginning or at the end of the day, or indicating plain daylight. Blue is also the sphere of deep knowledge, for Apollinaire, the sphere of ideas, memories, timeless phenomena, on which Picasso, as a painter/poet was drawing in his art. And, not to forget, for Apollinaire blue (his favourite color, as one does know) was not only associated with ›abyss‹, but could also express hope: blue could remain (as a goal), literally, even, as Apollinaire says, even if there was no such thing as a horizon.

Two) Social History Added

Later art historians may have reconstructed biography as well as social history and thus may have added social history to what we know and may understand of the Blue Period of Pablo Picasso. But if the art is meant to confront oneself with human misery and the ways humans are dealing with misery, it is less important to know how and where exactly Picasso had studied human misery. Which he seems to have done actively, not unlike a journalist, but not with the goal of doing journalism, but with the goal of doing painting – as timeless poetry.
And still it is interesting to keep in mind that such diverse perspectives do exist, and may translate into each other. Journalism may be one way to look into the Blue Period of Picasso, while Apollinaire rather speaks – congenially and as a poet-writer – as Picasso was painting. The Blue Period, on some level, had constructed itself first, and had not been something Apollinaire, the writer, had triggered, as a writer. Because when Apollinaire began to write on the artist Pablo Picasso, the Blue Period had almost passed, and Apollinaire had made the acquaintance of Picasso only in 1904.
But Apollinaire is, on some level, also the first historian of the Blue Period, who set the tone of how one may perceive and reconstruct the Blue Period, just by ignoring social history and leaving the reconstruction of such history to later historians, who, on the other hand, may bring diverse backgrounds to such reconstruction, and when Alfred H. Barr, Jr., for example, began to write on Picasso, drawing, of course, also on Apollinaire, blue could have already a connotation of the Blues. And thus specific social history – the history of music, of Blues and Jazz – could be imported into the further reconstruction of the Blue Period, which, in its own right, could become a reference for Blues and Jazz (and other artistic fields).

Three) The Materiality of Blue

According to Pierre Daix Apollinaire had been surprised to find out that Picasso, in his studio, used to dress like a worker, like an electrician – in blue cotton. And thus the material side of blue should never be neglected.
Other art historians have spoken of faience blue (see Wilhelm Boeck, p. 120), if referring to the Blue Period, but Daix, who also shows the tendency to wanting to monopolize the knowledge of this period, is probably the most precise and dedicated historian of the Blue Period (see his Picasso dictionary). But in the end, it is always Apollinaire who had understood and congenially expressed what the Blue Period had been about. And certainly it had not been about specific hues (greenish blues), or about the light of Barcelona changing the blue in Picasso, but about timeless poetry, to which later historians of Picasso blue may add notes, interesting notes, valuable notes, without being able, however, to contribute something as essential – and as congenially – as Guillaume Apollinaire had been able, the first historian of Picasso Blue, who showed more negligent as to discerning diverse Periods, but captured the essence of what the Blue Period had been and is about.

Further Reading:
Hajo Düchting, Apollinaire zur Kunst. Texte und Kritiken 1905-1918, Cologne 1989

MICROSTORY OF ART
ONLINE JOURNAL FOR ART, CONNOISSEURSHIP AND CULTURAL JOURNALISM
HOME

Top of the page

Microstory of Art Main Index

Dietrich Seybold Homepage

© DS