
Picasso’s main revolutionary contribution to Cubism was his depiction of bodies. He did not draw human bodies in their usual closed forms; instead he gave them free-flowing shapes that could move into large spaces where the “figure dissolves.” (Karmel, 49) There was no direction to this discovery of this new form of art, but Picasso experimented with it and came up with almost unrecognizable forms of bodies. He experimented with types of “figuration” hand in hand with “projective space” ultimately leading to “open form.” (Karmel, 49) This “open form” was the free-flowing form of the human body which defines Picasso in the era of Cubism.
Naturally, as expected, there were many negative attitudes towards Cubism because of its drastically revolutionary form. Many of Picasso’s works were called things such as “monstrous” and “inhuman.” (Karmel, 99) However, Picasso insisted that he was using nature to depict real images in their most real forms. He said that in the past painting had never been realistic, and now that it had an aspect so close to nature, it was not accepted by the majority of people. Picasso believed in discovering new ways of art, and as he said “A painter’s study should be a laboratory. He should invent, not just copy nature like an ape.” (qtd. Karmel, 99) Picasso invented a radically new form of art, and with the help of friends, he made his mark with Cubism.
Picasso, Pablo. Woman Playing the Mandolin (1909) State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow, 1931.
(http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/f05/fkherani/picassos_full_body_selfportraits.html)