Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians And Salvador Dali's The Persistance Of Memory: A Comparative Analysis

Cubism is a style of art which shows all the possible viewpoints of a person or object at the same time. It’s called cubism because the items represented in the artworks look like they’re made out of cubes and geometrical shapes. Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality and was invented around 1907-1908 Surrealism is a movement in art and literature that flourished in the early 20th century. It aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control. Many surrealist artists used automatic drawing or writing to unlock ideas and images from their unconscious minds, and others sought to depict dream worlds or hidden psychological tensions.

Picasso was born in Spain on the 25th of October 1881 and died in France on the 8th of April 1973. Picasso’s most famous painting is Guernica (1937) it is the world’s most famous and moving antiwar statements. It was inspired by the brutal 1937 bombing of the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Although Picasso did many art movements his main movement was Analytic cubism (1909 – 1912). It is a style of painting Picasso developed with Georges Braque using monochrome brownish and neutral colours. His artwork is called The Three Musicians made in 1921 in the style of cubism. The colour has been used on the musicians themselves and it has been used so that your eyes are drawn to the bright colour first. Then you can look at the colours in the back. This is the decorative use of the colours and they have been mixed with many different shades in the background to show different objects. There is also contrast in the light and dark colours used on the different objects in the painting. The use of these colours is to show that it is a happy painting as there are bright colours on the musicians clothing and instruments. Picasso used a limited about of colours on this piece as that is the style of Analytic Cubism.

The main shapes that have been used are squares, rectangles, triangles and a couple of circles. They are inorganic and unrealistic because they are not the usual shapes of some of the objects that have been drawn. The shapes create a small amount of contrast with the sharp squares and soft circles. The artist draws your eye to the circles because everything else is squares, triangles or rectangles. The use of shape is almost like it’s angry because all the edges are so sharp. The artist has used a small range of shapes because it is cubism and this style doesn’t use a lot of shapes. The tone has been used in the background, by using different shades for the walls. The tone is natural because the shades are a realistic representation of what tones are normally used. The tone doesn’t create much contrast between light and dark as the shades aren’t too different from one another. The light is coming in front of the musicians because the ground and back wall are in more light than the side walls. The artwork does not model forms to make things look three-dimensional as the work is cubism and shows all the angles at once so there is no need for it to be three-dimensional. The artist draws your attention to the darker objects in the back of the artwork because it has many different tone shades. The use of tone is gloomy because even though there are bright colours most of the other colours are dark.

Salvador Dali was born on the 11th of May 1904 in Spain, he died on the 23rd of January 1989 in pain. The Persistence of Memory (1931) was arguably Dali’s most famous artwork. Dali was a Spanish surrealist painter and printmaker, and this made him known for exploring subconscious imagery. Predominant art movement – like many other artists Dali also did a wide genre of art movements but the one he was most known for and had the most success in was surrealism. Colour has been used mainly in the background and on some of the objects. The colour used is descriptive. The colours have been mixed to create different tones and shades mainly in the background, there is some slight contrast with orange and blue throughout the artwork. The artist draws your attention to one of the melted clocks with the gold and blue on the table because it and the orange object beside it are brighter colours than the rest of the objects in the artwork. The colours make you feel at peace because they aren’t extremely vibrant and in your face. There is a wide range of colours because there are many highlights and shadows. The types of shapes that have been used are rectangles, stretched out circles, rugged shapes and ovals.

The shapes are mainly inorganic because the objects that are shaped like that aren’t stretched like that in real life. The shapes are mainly unrealistic as they are stretched out of proportions, although some shapes do look realistic such as the mountain-like object in the background. The shapes create contrast by having stretched circles and sharp rectangles right next to each other. The artist draws your attention to the goose-like object on the ground and the orange object on the bench, they draw your attention here by having bright colours and interesting imagery. The use of shape emotive is sad because the goose of the ground looks like it’s dead and the melting clocks represent time melting away. The artist has used a wide range of shapes all though-out the artwork, from the background shapes to the melting clocks. The tone has been used everywhere in the artwork for shadowing. The tone is natural because it is used for shading where most shading should be. Tone also creates contrast through-out the artwork by having both lights and dark colours close to each other. It shows that the light is coming from the sunrise/set in the background. The artwork also models forms to create the objects in the artwork appear three-dimensional by shadowing everywhere where it should be. The artist draws your attention to the background where the most tone is used by having contrast. The tone is peaceful as they are subtle colours that don’t pop out in your face. This is so that you focus more on the objects and the theme.