On May 1, 2022, the Picasso Authentic Art Exhibition will be displayed in Zhuhai, among which the sculpture works with the theme of owls such as "Young Owl", "Owl" and "Colored Bird" are particularly eye-catching. Many people only know that Picasso is a master of painting, but they don't know that he is also a sculptor. Owls are one of Picasso's favorite themes. In his works, you can often see owl shapes of different shapes. Picasso once said: "The owl is my soulmate. Whenever I encounter a bottleneck, it will spit a spherical bag and tell me what to do." According to records, Picasso did adopt an owl. . So why do owls spit out kits? What kind of relationship does Picasso have with it?
Love at first sight, first meeting on the banks of
the Seine
On October 25, 1881, Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain. He has been fond of animals since he was a child. When I was in elementary school, a teacher at the school kept pigs, chickens, sheep, yellow warblers, bees and many other small creatures. Every day after school, Picasso would go to observe carefully. In addition to his homework, he learned a lot about small animals. .
Picasso's home was near a square where many suave pigeons perched. Every evening, he would lie on the windowsill, watch the pigeons dance on the plane tree branches carefully, and listen carefully to their low voices.
On May 12, 1943, Picasso was having dinner with friends in a restaurant on the left bank of the Seine when he saw a beautiful girl at the next table. He and the girl looked at each other, attracted to each other.
The girl, François Gillot, was 22 years old and had just made her debut in the world of painting, while Picasso, 62, was already famous all over the world. Despite the age difference in front of them, they started dating.
Although young, Gillot is very assertive and has a strong talent for painting. Every time Picasso saw her, it was like seeing himself back then. But he always felt that Gillot was detached from him, and because it was during the war, he was also very confused.
At that time, Paris was occupied by Germany, Picasso painted a "Guernica", which is a symbol of anti-fascism, and may be arrested at any time, but he has been sticking to Paris. In his heart, there is always a strong voice reminding: "Let's stay away from Gillot, don't delay her."
Day by day, Picasso felt that being with Gillot was as gorgeous as fireworks, but it was fleeting. . Gilot also admired Picasso very much, feeling that he had unparalleled creativity and wisdom.
One night in 1946, Picasso and Gillot were walking on the banks of the Seine together. When they passed a house, an owl suddenly fell from the roof. It turned out that one of its paws was injured and blood was dripping.
Gillot backed away in fright. Although she knew about owls, she had never seen them so close. The feathers around the owl's eyes are radiating, and the thin feathers are arranged to form a face plate. The face looks like a cat. Although it is injured, there is still a fierce light in the eyes, which makes people shudder.
Picasso, who had been fond of animals since he was a child, was not afraid at all. He carefully checked the wound of the owl, and immediately went to the roadside to pick some leaves of plants and rubbed them with stones. At first, the owl struggled, perhaps because the leaves stopped the blood, it stopped moving, and its eyes softened.
Picasso adopted this owl and gave it a cute name called Ubud. Under the careful care of Picasso, Ubud's body gradually recovered. Sometimes, it would fly around Picasso's head, but it never ran far. Picasso glanced at it and it would fly back and stand leaning against his fingers.
Picasso likes Ubud more and more, especially in the dead of night, he likes to confide in Ubud.
May 12 is the anniversary of the first encounter between Picasso and Gillot. Picasso decided to confess to Gillot on this day, but thinking of the current situation, there are still many concerns.
When the first ray of morning light had not yet lit up the village, Picasso came to the owl Ubud and asked softly, "Gilot and I have known each other for so long, you say, should I confess to her today?"
Ubud fluttered his wings a few times, but he opened his mouth and spat out an egg-sized ball. Picasso was taken aback, how could there be such a strange phenomenon? He looked at Ubud, which was nodding to him. He picked up the ball and held it in his hand. It was hot, and he suddenly understood what he should do.
In the evening, Picasso, holding flowers, rushed to Gillot to express his passion: "My dear, please marry me?" Gillot was stunned and asked shyly, "I've been waiting for your words for years, today How do you have the courage to say it?" Picasso laughed like a child: "Because, Ubud gave me a spherical kit." The
tit for tat, the
ceramic voice cherishes the year
This year, Picasso finally lived with Gillot. together.
That day, they went for a walk on the beach, Gillot walked slowly with a hat on, Picasso held a huge parasol behind her, and Ubud the owl flew from time to time on the umbrella, the scene was warm and romantic.
Suddenly, Ubud flew to Picasso's arm, shook his head gently, and nodded incessantly. Picasso's eyes lit up, and his inspiration suddenly burst out, and he immediately painted the famous "Woman-Flower" for Gillot.
At first, Picasso was going to paint a real face for Gillot, but after thinking for a while, he said, "No, this is not your style, and a realistic portrait cannot reproduce you at all. Although your face is a long goose egg, But I’m going to paint it cool—blue, and it’ll be like a little blue moon.”
He painted a piece of paper blue and cut it into ellipses of various degrees based on the blue moon concept. After all the cuts, he drew eyes, nose and mouth on each circle, then pinned these ovals on the canvas with needles and moved them up and down, left and right. After repeated attempts, he finally found a suitable position. Put it away, and said to Gillot, "Okay, this is your portrait."
He painted her entire portrait into a flower, deep and beautiful. But when he was painting, Picasso always had the shadow of the owl Ubud in front of his eyes. He knew that he was clearly painting Gillot, but he seemed to be painting Ubud.
The appearance of the owl Ubud deeply influenced Picasso. From November 1946 to March 1947, he created more than 10 oil paintings of owls based on Ubud. They either perched on branches, or In a cage, it is most common to stand on the back of a wooden chair.
Picasso likes Ubud more and more. He and Ubud have the same habit of nocturnal activities. Picasso also likes the tranquility and inspiration brought by the dark night. In 1948, Picasso and Gillot moved to the countryside in Vallory, southern France.
On the surface, it was a quiet day after the war, but in fact, cracks in their marriage were quietly emerging.
Within a few years, Gilot gave birth to two children for Picasso, and the task of caring for the children fell on her. At the same time, she had to be Picasso's muse, staying up late with the models, discussing or arguing about paintings, often until two or three in the morning.
Gradually, Gillot became exhausted and could not help complaining, but Picasso was a macho and felt that these were normal.
Once, they argued again because of some work ideas. In Gillot's works, children are real people, not abstract color blocks, so she thinks realism is better, while Picasso thinks that the work should be virtual. As a result, two talented artists hit nails, and they couldn't give in to each other.
Picasso asked Gillot: "Why are you always doing it against me?" Gillot said: "Because marriage is a matter of two people, not your one-man show, you can't be a tyrant who asks me to obey everything, and it's all about you. ." Picasso was a little annoyed, he felt that Gillot didn't know himself too well. Many times, Picasso was very troubled by Gillot's independent, direct and sharp character.
At night, he stood in front of the owl Ubud, pouring out his confusion. Ubud is like a bosom friend who is good at listening. Although he doesn't speak, he keeps comforting him with his eyes, as if to say that marriage requires mutual tolerance.
On a midsummer day, Picasso and Gillot went to Valoris for a holiday and visited the local handicraft market. Picasso was fascinated by the pottery making process at the market, where he met Susan and George Hamier. The couple graciously allowed Picasso to experience their ceramic workshop and taught Picasso about clay and ceramic making.
Picasso fell in love with this craft and decided to learn it from scratch. As soon as Gillot heard it, he felt that he was talking nonsense. He was already very busy, and he had entered a rare age. How could he have the energy to do this?
Indeed, making ceramics requires familiarity with mud and the entire cumbersome production process, as well as full physical strength and endurance. The plasticity, shrinkage, brittleness, and deformation and collapse of ceramics during the firing process will bring difficulties to the production of ceramics.
But these difficulties made Picasso with a strong curiosity more eager to explore, because he was always immersed in solving difficulties and self-challenges.
When they got home, neither of them persuaded the other, and the conflict intensified. Gillot said angrily: "I admire your talent, but I don't want to succumb to your strength, let alone become your captive, let's get a divorce."
Picasso calmed down slowly. Although he was a little disappointed with Gillot, he Thinking that she has paid a lot for herself and has two children, divorce is not good for anyone.
In silence, Picasso did not choose to divorce, but did not listen to Gillot's dissuasion, but devoted himself directly to the study and creation of pottery.
Seeing him go his own way, Gillot was silent, and the hearts of the two went farther and farther. However, Picasso's learning path was not smooth, and pottery art was not as simple as he imagined. After many attempts, his works were still mediocre. But the more so, the more interested Picasso is.
He and Gillot spent less and less time together, and more often, the owl Ubud was waiting by his side. Sometimes, he even felt that Ubud knew him better than his wife.
One night, when Gillot filed for divorce again, Picasso was silent for a while and decided to ask Ubud. Ubud was also silent, with deep melancholy in his eyes, but it suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a ball the size of an egg. Picasso was stunned. This was the second time he saw Ubud spit out a small ball. He felt that this owl was really a magical bird. . So, he decisively agreed to divorce, and began to create pottery.
Retire after success, and
do "Biwing Birds" again in the next life.
At first, Picasso did not understand pottery technology. However, he was clever. He found a platter and created it with a multicolored brushed stucco plate instead of a canvas border. He found an opportunity to perform his old skills on the plane, not only splashing ink on the plate, but even processing the edge of the plate into a picture frame.
For practice, he also chose some bisque pieces in the inventory to decorate the plate. The creative theme of the plate is similar to that of his paintings, and themes such as face masks, bullfighting, natural scenery, animals, etc. appear frequently.
Picasso's cubism style is perfectly reflected on the large plate rich in Mediterranean characteristics, the human features are rearranged, and the front and multiple sides of the face are presented at the same time. Those black-and-white drawings depicting bullfighting scenes focus on the spirit rather than the shape, and the brushwork is vigorous and strong, and the force penetrates the back of the paper.
Picasso worked as hard as a real craftsman, not only quickly learned the crafts of drawing, molding and glazing, but also experimented with cobalt blue, patina, violet and a wide variety of enamels to make ingredients, sketched kilns, and fired them himself Ceramics, and even bought lathes to cut and process pottery.
After unremitting efforts, Picasso's pottery creation is finally getting better.
At that time, ceramics, as a form of creative artistic expression, had not been recognized by the art world, and more people only regarded it as an ancient traditional handicraft category, which could not be compared with painting at all.
But it was the emergence of Picasso's ceramic art that changed people's deep-rooted ideas. Picasso not only integrated three-dimensional elements into the ceramic plate, but also applied the painting techniques of "Girls of Avignon" to ceramic creation. He still insists on his curious style, painting various face masks on pottery plates, transforming a series of thin-necked wine jars and vases into female figures, and also produced a series of ceramic works with animal figures.
The owl is Picasso's new image in ceramic creation. Picasso, who is more and more familiar with the characteristics of ceramics, applies the unique and interesting elements of Bi style to ceramics by freely adjusting the shape and proportion of the pottery. new vitality.
The owl is an extremely contradictory symbol. Chinese folk believe that owls are unpleasant to call, and that they are active at night, which is an unlucky thing. But in Western culture, the owl is a symbol of wisdom.
Picasso still often talks to the owl Ubud. He feels that since God sent Ubud to his side and became his lucky bag, he should be an innovative leader.
In each creation, Picasso put the owl Ubud in it, and the owl became the dominant theme in his three-dimensional works. Metal, plaster cast, bronze or fired with clay, he painted this image in a variety of mediums. These models emphasize the calm and warm nature of the owl and depict its protruding eyes.
One day in 1953, 72-year-old Picasso was about to do an evening exercise. He habitually came to greet the owl Ubud, but saw Ubud's eyes glowing softly in the moonlight, and he opened his mouth and spit out another small round. ball. Picasso was a little puzzled. He didn't meet a bottleneck. Why did it spit out the tips again? Could it be a sign of something?
Picasso was walking on the path full of doubts. Suddenly, he felt his eyes light up. A beautiful woman with big green eyes came under the street lamp on the opposite side. Her appearance and temperament reminded Picasso immediately of Delacroix's famous painting "Algiers" in 1834. "Woman", Picasso liked this painting very much. He had a long-term relationship with the woman in the painting, but he did not expect to meet here today.
In a trance, he understood what Ubud meant by spitting out the kit. It turned out that it had long known that today was an extraordinary day.
In this way, Picasso got acquainted with this girl, her name is Jacqueline Locke, 26 years old, a salesperson in a ceramic shop, with a rich understanding of ceramic art.
Soon, the two fell in love. Jacqueline admired Picasso's talent, and Picasso was deeply impressed by Jacqueline's understanding of pottery. Under the suggestion of Jacqueline, Picasso quickly showed his superb painting and sculpture skills in ceramic creation. He took a big step forward and began to explore various aspects in the field of form.
Accompanied by Jacqueline and Ubud the owl, Picassos thought like a spring, and some conceptually interesting works were produced. They are some very different combinations of styles, very rigorous structure, very difficult to make. Some are combinations of cones whose central axes are deviated from each other, some are structures that are combined with overhangs, and some are combinations of twisted shapes...
In Picasso's mind, all the conveniences provided by the plasticity of clay have been utilized. Of course, Picasso's favorite is still owls, he breathed them into life, each of which is lifelike, rough and strong, but full of childishness.
Picasso's love for Ubud the owl grew deeper and deeper, and with this deep love, his most amazing self-portrait was born. In October 1957, Picasso received a visit from the photographer of the American Legend Report. The other party had taken a photo of Picasso's intense gaze. He hoped that Picasso would authorize the autograph for the photo.
Picasso smiled, tore a blank sheet of paper from his sketchbook, drew an owl's face, and dug holes the size of his eyes. He first held the paper over his face like a mask, then placed it over his picture. In the photo, his gaze pierced through the owl's eyes, exuding infinite charm. He said: "This is not a prayer or a masquerade, but I have become one with Ubud and become an owl."
In May 1961, the 80-year-old Picasso and Jacqueline were officially married, except for the newlyweds. , only lawyers participated as witnesses, and of course, Ubud, who has been flying beside Picasso.
But not long after they got married, the owl Ubud was sick. Late one night, the dying Ubud spit out the last spherical bag and slowly closed his eyes. Picasso stared at the small ball left by Ubud for a long time, sad and full of tears. He knew that Ubud was reminding him that Jacqueline was a good companion and that they would be together forever.
Sure enough, they treated each other with respect after marriage, and everything about Picasso was decided by Jacqueline. To the aged Picasso, she was mother, friend, and lover; to young Jacqueline, Picasso was everything to her, a teacher, a husband, and a child, and she cared and cared for him with all her heart.
Jacqueline created a warm world for Picasso in her later years, and Picasso also painted a lot of works for her. After Picasso died in 1973, Jacqueline lost the only love in her life and committed suicide three years later.
After many years, Picasso's nearly 4,000 ceramic works were exhibited one by one. His bold exploration of ceramics not only reproduced his exquisite art, but also showed the charm of ceramics itself, and most importantly, gave ceramics more art. The connotation has become an eternal classic in the ceramic art world.
With the development of society, there is also a very scientific explanation for why the owl Ubud can spit "tips". It turned out that owls mainly eat at night, and the prey are usually some mice, birds and the like, but owls have no teeth and can only swallow them directly, and then digest them through gastric juice. But the meat can be digested, but the fur on the animal cannot be digested, so these hairs will form small balls in the owl's stomach and spit out regularly, because they spit out at night, so it is difficult for people to detect.
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