Analyzing Picasso's Paintings as Cultural and Educational Tools

This essay investigates the significant contributions of Pablo Picasso's paintings to education and culture. It begins by providing a brief background on Picasso and the elements of art. The essay then analyzes three of Picasso's notable paintings: "The Weeping Woman," "Bouquet of Peace," and "Mother and Child," examining their cultural and educational significance. "The Weeping Woman" is discussed in the context of the horrors of war, emphasizing the importance of peace. "Bouquet of Peace" is analyzed for its symbolism of harmony and rebirth. "Mother and Child" is examined for its portrayal of women as divine figures. The essay concludes by suggesting how Picasso's work can be introduced to pre-schoolers, highlighting the use of bright colors and emotional expression in his art. The essay emphasizes the value of art in promoting cultural understanding and education.

Running head: IMPLICATION OF PAINTINGS ON EDUCATION
Implication of paintings on education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IMPLICATION OF PAINTINGS ON EDUCATION
Introduction
The artists of the world have made significant contributions to the human society. Their
work inspires many people in different fields of their activity (Adams, 2018). Paintings and
sculptures are not only meant to show the desires of the artists, but are also meant to reflect on
the customs and traditions that are present in the world around them. Thus, it is often believed
that artistic work are a window to the inner soul of the human society (Adams, 2018). This essay
looks in to important contributions made by Picasso to the human society. In this respect, three
significant paintings of him have been examined in order to see how they can be used as a
cultural and educational tool.
Background of Picasso
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist belonging to the twentieth century (Henderson &
Rothe, 2017). He is more popularly known for the invention of the Cubist Movement which is
the field of constructed sculpture. Picasso initially started to paint in a naturalist manner.
However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, he changed his style to incorporate more
ideas and techniques within his work.
Elements of art work
Art work consist of seven important elements which have been listed as below –
The painting of The Weeping Woman has made magnificent use of the elements of line
and form in its painting. A line marks the distance that is observed between two designated
points (Hermeren, 2015). Whereas, form is the three dimensional effect of shape when it

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acquires the characteristic of depth. This is clearly noticeable in the panting whereby Picasso
tried to show the horrors of war as revealed inside the depth of the eyes of the woman.
The Bouquet of Peace has made use of the elements of shape, texture and space. Shapes
are mainly two dimensional in nature and it is mainly used to give direction to how the
concerned painting is perceived by the audience (Errington, 2016). For instance, the two hands
holding the flowers show the need for peace. The element of texture refers to the sense of touch
where the factor of ‘feel’ comes in to play. This is shown in the object of the ‘flower’. Space
refers to the placement of the different forms of elements within the concerned art work.
The painting of mother and child, on the other hand, has made significant use of value
and color. Color in an art is sued to give emotions to the figure or object drawn (Elgammal &
Saleh, 2015). Value is meant to give a mood to the concerned art work by changing the mode of
light in the painting (Pantaleo, 2018). The use of blue color in the painting shows the use of such
elements.
Critique of the artist and the artwork as a cultural and educational tool
The paintings of the different artists can be treated as having certain cultural and
educational significance. Picasso engaged in the Cubist Movement in order give construction
value to the sculptures made by him (Orozco, 2018). Moreover, the style of his paintings is also
different from the traditional way of painting. They are found to be more emotional and loud in
nature.
One of the most famous paintings of Picasso is that of the Weeping Woman. This
painting was painted in the year of 1937 which mainly aimed to signify the horrors of the
Spanish Civil War (Fattal, 2017). However, Picasso mainly aimed to focus on the issue of

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suffering of the concerned individuals more. He painted the Guernica’s bombing by the
Luftwaffe in the dark eyes of the woman in the painting.
This painting is showed to have certain educational significance because it reveals how
the disastrous effects of war has an adverse impact on the common people of the land. As a
result, this painting propounds the importance of peace. The painting is also culturally significant
as it speaks out against the use of warfare by showing the horrific impact it can have on the
human society.
Another popular painting of Picasso is that of the bouquet of piece. This painting was
painted in the year of 1958 (Henderson & Rothe, 2017). This painting was painted on the special
occasion of the peace demonstrations which were held in Stockholm during July, 1958. The use
of bright colors signify the emotions of giving hope and a sense of rebirth to the target audience.
The paintings depict a bouquet of flower being held by two different individuals. This is meant
to show the need for peace and harmony among the different individuals of the human society.
This painting is educationally significant as it shows to the students how peace is vital for
the human community. Furthermore, the painting paid tribute to one of the most important peace
demonstrations in the world that was organized in the twentieth century. It is culturally important
as this aids in the creation of awareness among the human race.
The third painting of Picasso which is culturally and educationally significant is that of
Mother and Child. This painting was painted in the year of 1901 and bears likeness to the
painting of Madonna which was painted in the era of the Blue Period (Fattal, 2017). In this
painting it can be observed that Picasso tried to portray the figure of a woman in the context of a
mother and as a holy and divine figure rather than in the light of a sexual being. In order to give

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more effect to the painting, it has been painted in a monochrome color of blue and the use of
space in the painting is quite distinctive.
This painting is educationally quite significant as it shows to the individuals of the
society how they should be perceiving the female gender. Picasso wanted the people to see
women in the light of a divine creature who has the power to give birth. The painting is also
culturally significant as it attempts to uplift the position of women in the society.
Introduction of the artist and his work to the pre-schoolers
Pre-schoolers refer to those group of individuals who are yet to join school. Therefore,
they fall in the age category of 1 year to 3 years (Mayesky, 2014). Such young individuals are
usually attracted to the photos and bright colors. The paintings of Picasso are often colorful and
extremely emotional in nature. Thus, it would be easier to introduce Picasso and his art work to
the pre-schoolers by telling them that Picasso often engages with bright colors and extreme use
of lines and form (Roy, Baker & Hamilton, 2015). This would help them to distinguish between
the work of Picasso and the work of other artists.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be observed that paintings and other artistic works have a deep and
significant impact on the culture and educational values of the society. The paintings of Picasso
have a unique characteristic of representing an idealistic value of the society which is desired by
almost every individual. The paintings chosen in the course of this essay, namely the weeping
woman, bouquet of piece and mother and child try to portray the need of peace and security in
the nation while also trying to create a sense of importance for the women population of the
world.

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References:
Adams, L. S. (2018). Art and psychoanalysis. Routledge.
Adams, L. S. (2018). The methodologies of art: An introduction. Routledge.
Elgammal, A., & Saleh, B. (2015). Quantifying creativity in art networks. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1506.00711.
Errington, S. (2016). Entangled Subjects and Art Objects.
Fattal, L. F. (2017). Dora Maar: Contextualizing Picasso’s Muse. Women in Judaism: A
Multidisciplinary e-Journal, 14(2).
Grey, A. (2017). The mission of art. Shambhala Publications.
Henderson, R., & Rothe, R. (2017). Picasso: A modular framework for visualizing the learning
process of neural network image classifiers. arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.05627.
Hermeren, G. (2015). Influence in art and literature (Vol. 1445). Princeton University Press.
Mayesky, M. (2014). Creative activities and curriculum for young children. Cengage Learning.
Orozco, M. (2018). Picasso: 70 years of book illustration Catalogue raisonné.
Pantaleo, S. (2018). Learning about and through picturebook artwork. The Reading
Teacher, 71(5), 557-567.
Roy, D., Baker, W. & Hamilton, A. (2015). Teaching the arts: Early Childhood and primary
education (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press

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Appendix
Figure 1: The Weeping Woman
Figure 2: The Boutique of Peace

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Figure 3: Mother and Child