|
6 [Background info] [K-6: Looking] [K-6: Making] [7-12]
Woman with pillow 10 July 1969
oil on canvas 194 x 130 (cat. 48)
Musée National Picasso, Paris
© Succession Picasso, Paris, Viscopy Ltd, Sydney, 2002
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGE:
Picasso and Jacqueline Roque, at Villa La Californie 1955
Photo Lee Miller
© Lee Miller Archives, Chiddingly, England www.leemiller.co.uk
In this painting Picasso seems to chart the psycho-dynamics of erotic love with its paradox of tenderness and violation. Distortion and exaggeration come from a complex state of entrancement. This image may initially appear so deformed that some would consider it monstrously ugly. What would its subject, Jacqueline, think when Picasso showed her this image representing her? Yet there is a strong sense of the figure being held very tenderly cradled by the frame of the painting. The fluid lines and sensuous shapes encode a kind of pleasure. Agitation blends with tranquillity, brutishness with self-containment.
Did Picasso only paint black and white images when he wanted to show something tragic and violent? Perhaps it was the mobility it allowed, as the picture slips in and out of being a flat planar representation and a tactile, volumetric configuration of graded tone.
K-6
LOOKING IDEAS
Examine the pose of this woman and role-play.
Hold this pose for 1 minute without moving. (This is what an artist's model would have to do, but for a longer period of time.)
How do you think an artist's model would feel posing without moving for an hour or so?
What would the model do to keep still? Name something that can be seen that might make posing a bit more comfortable.
This model was named Jacqueline and she was married to Picasso.
Look at the photograph of them both in 1959.
Describe how Picasso has portrayed Jacqueline in this painting.
Imagine being Jacqueline. Explain what Jacqueline could see while her portrait was being painted.
Discuss what she might have thought about her portrait.
Compare Picasso's painted portrait with the photograph of her. Describe what likeness Picasso has captured.
Create a speech bubble for Jacqueline.
Name the two main colours used for this painting. Make a list of the characteristics of the colours white and black. What colour do you get when these two are mixed? Find examples in this painting.
MAKING IDEAS
Make a black and white portrait of someone who is special to you.
Create a drawing from Jacqueline's view.
Experiment mixing tones of grey by adding different amounts of black to white. Create a graded chart of tones from white to black.
LINKS TO KEY LEARNING AREAS
- HSIE: Identities.
- English: Talking and Listening, Producing texts
- Drama: Performing, Role play
- Science and Technology: Investigating (Colour theory)
7-12
FRAMING QUESTIONS
Frames: Structural / Subjective
Compare Woman with Pillow with Nude in a Rocking Chair. What feelings do you associate with each? Describe how Picasso has made Woman with Pillow more intimate and personal than Nude in a Rocking Chair 1956. In doing this consider the depiction of the body, the pose of the nudes, the setting, framing of the figure, the application of paint and the use of colour and tone. What might the use of black and white versus colour in Picasso's paintings mean?
Photography is used to document personal life and history. What can we learn about Picasso's relationship with his wife Jacqueline from this photograph? Compare it with the painting. How does Picasso extend the intimacy expressed in the photograph to the painting? Consider how Picasso documents his personal life within his artistic practice. Discuss.
Explore the sculptural qualities of the painting. Research Picasso's monumental nudes of the early 1920s. What does this body of work have in common with Woman with Pillows? Explore through influences, subject matter and art-making technique. | 
