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| Guernica-1937 Picasso |
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| Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) |
Did you know his real name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso?
Seriously. I'm not kidding. Google it if you don't believe me.
The thing I already knew was that he is credited as the father of cubism. (I'm not a total idiot.)
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| Georges Braque (1882-1963) |
The other main creator was Georges Braque. I had never heard of him. As I said, I don't know much about art.
Another thing that I already knew is that cubism looks silly to me. I've never understood why it's considered to be so innovative and important.
Years ago I was listening to a famous preacher. He said something that has stuck with me. He said, "If all you can do is ridicule another religion, then you don't truly understand it." I'll admit, it takes a bit of study to wrap your head around that big of an idea.
Honestly, some things that people do and believe are pretty ridiculous.
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| Les Demoiselles d'Avignon-1907 Picasso |
Take this painting, for example.
Their faces are weird and their boobs are triangles. The one on the bottom right looks like a confused wildebeest.
See? It's easy to make fun of his work.
As I thought about my boy Pablo, I recalled those words of wisdom. Perhaps I just didn't understand what he was doing.
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| Violin and Candlestick-1910 Braque |
There's a theme that occurs to me:
Tolerance.
As a society, I think we've forgotten what tolerance actually is. Nowadays, we seem to think that tolerance is agreeing with something with which you do not agree.
There is cultural pressure to agree with, or "be tolerant" of, ideas which are "politically correct."
So, nowadays, tolerance = agree with.
The catch is that there are glaring exceptions to the new policy of "tolerance."
For instance, no one is expected to agree with Christianity. Crystals? You know it! Jesus? Oh come on dude, you can't possibly believe in that bigot.
Perhaps it's obvious to you by now that, by today's standards, I'm not considered very tolerant. It's a no-brainer that I'm not politically correct.
The thing that I couldn't figure out when this new "tolerance" came online is why I have to agree with them, but they don't have to agree with me.
The answer to this conundrum turns out to be a matter of definition. Without us noticing, they changed the definition of tolerance. It turns out that words DO mean things, and, if one can change the meanings, one can win the debate.
In actuality, tolerance has nothing to do with agreement. The idea that it does is a fabrication of the politically correct crowd. We, as a society, were sleeping on the linguistic job.
Tolerance actually occurs when we don't agree, but we still respect and love. Think about it: How can anyone possibly "tolerate" an idea with which he already agrees? If I agree with an idea, I'm not tolerating it, I'm ... uh ... agreeing with it. No tolerance needed.
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| Harlequin with Violin-1918 Picasso |
Ah, but if I don't agree with the idea, but I still respect and love you, then I'm being very tolerant indeed.
Back to Pablo.
Again, as usual, I was right: I didn't have a clue about what he was trying to do.
Now, on to the quilting part of this post...
There's another thread to the story that I'm writing here. The other thread has to do with the quilt design mindset that's always buzzing in my brain.
One day, an idea popped into my head. I was thinking about a pair of jeans. It's goofy, I know, but there ya have it. I was thinking that it would look cool if I took a pair of jeans, cut the back of them off, and use the intact front of those jeans in a quilt. I figured that I could sort of surround them with some fabric to make a background.
Then, the idea grew. Maybe I could do the same thing with a shirt and put it above the jeans. Ya know, like an outfit laid out on a display at a fancy store. Specifically, a white long-sleeve dress shirt. I like that look. I wear it often. With my boots, if you must know. I'm a southern boy, what can I say? Not that you would care, but my fiance' thinks it's hot.
Sorry, mom.
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| Three Musicians-1921 Picasso |
Then I had an odd thought. This was beginning to resemble the goofy paintings of my old pal Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.
When we used to hang out, I just called him Pickie, for short.
And now, the threads merge...
It was at this point that I realized that maybe I should spend a few minutes and learn more about cubism.
Next thing ya know, Google was doing some work for me.
Here's what I learned:
Until Pickie and his pal Georges came along, art was mostly about realism. That means that painters wanted their paintings to look like images from the real world.
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| La guitare-1909-10 Braque |
Think about most paintings that you see. They are all from one point of view. Like your eye is a camera lens and it just takes in what it sees. That's what most paintings are like.
Thinking about it from this point of view, it becomes apparent that, although some art is fuzzy, or pixelated, or abstract, or whatever, it all has one point of view. Or, rather, had one point of view, until Pickie and Georgie-boy came along and changed the whole game.
What they realized is that, as long as you limit the perspective, or point of view, to the camera-like eye, art could only go so far. So they had this strange thought: why not paint a subject from different points of view and put all of these viewpoints on the same two-dimensional canvass side by side.
This is why their paintings look so strange.
I have to admit that it's a cool idea.
I also have to admit that it's still not my favorite thing to look at. But now, I can appreciate what they were doing.
I can now look at their work and not like it without resorting to making fun of it. See? I can love Pickie without especially liking his paintings.
Maybe someday I'll make a cubist quilt of jeans, a dress shirt, and some scraps. Those who are intolerant can then make fun of me. But maybe there's a few who will hate the quilt and love me anyway.
Sometime it's just a matter of "perspective."
Yours tolerantly,
TheCurmudgeon
I prefer Monet. Love the colors. Someone else to read up on.
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