Picasso and Hemingway: 20th Century Innovators
by Fred Hasson
Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway carved their creative visions into
the first half of the 20th century. Today, their influence is still strong.
Picasso. Hemingway. No first names necessary. Before TV and even radio,
Hemingway and Picasso became household names‚ at least in educated
households. They were the rock stars of their day. Each, it can be argued, was the most important figure of the 20th century in his field.
Picasso’s ever-evolving style made him one of the most original and
prolific painters of all time. Hemingway revolutionized fiction with his
terse, reportorial prose and his technique of leaving much of the story
untold, relying on the reader’s intuition and imagination to fill in the
details. Writing, especially in the US, was never the same after Hemingway.
Early Successes of Hemingway and Picasso
Born in Spain to middle-class parents in 1881, Pablo Picasso first
showed up in Paris while in his late teens. Works from his Blue
(1901–1904) and Rose (1905–1907) Periods, painted during Picasso’s early
to mid-20s, were soon thereafter being bought by collectors such as Gertrude and Leo Stein. By his late twenties, he was thoroughly ensconced in the European social and artistic community.
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899, like Picasso into a middle-class
family. He came to Paris in the early 1920s, having worked as a
journalist in Chicago and Kansas City and, still in his teens, served as an
ambulance driver in the First World War. His assertive, gregarious nature,
his reporting from the Greco-Turkish War, and a few glimpses of some
early short stories earned him the support of Gertrude Stein, poet Ezra
Pound, and others. The American release of a short story collection, In
Our Times (1925), and the 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises brought
Hemingway immediate fame. He was just 27 years old.
Middle Periods
By the time Picasso had moved beyond his African Period and created the
style called Cubism (1907–1919), he was a world celebrity at the height
of his creative power. His return to a neoclassicist style in the
twenties (when Hemingway was just coming onto the scene) opened into a
prolific period that defies classification, other than describing it as
“Picasso.” Works such as “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” “Three Musicians,”
numerous cubist and neoclassic portraits, and later “Guernica”
distinguished Picasso as the most important painter in generations,
rivaled only by his contemporary, friend, and rival, Henri Matisse.
Hemingway, too, followed his initial promise with one triumph after
another. The success of A Farewell to Arms (1929) and a spate of short
stories based on his war experiences and his travels in Africa made
Hemingway financially independent. His sparse yet dense style, honed by
years of war reporting, and his tendency to leave out seemingly
important details made Hemingway’s voice instantly recognizable and much
copied (and parodied). For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), based on his
experiences reporting on the Spanish Civil War, was a crowning achievement.
Later Works
Always, Picasso defied categorization. He moved past Cubism and denied
Surrealism, both movements in which he played a role. His most
earth-shaking works (except for “Guernica”) were accomplished before
1925. Still, he settled into an incredibly prolific artistic life,
producing nearly 50,000 total works — including paintings, drawings,
sculptures, and other forms. Given this great production, it is amazing
that virtually all of his works are recognizable as Picassos, so unique
was his vision and his talent. He lived to 90 and worked for most of his
life.
Hemingway faced rather different fortunes later in life. While
continuing to produce superb short stories, his novels met with less
acclaim. His much-publicized pursuit of “manly” activities like boxing,
big-game fishing, and bull-fighting, combined with his often vexatious
personality, tended to distance the critics and, perhaps less so, the
public. Critical praise for his works became harder to come by, which
wasn’t helped by books like Across the River and Into the Trees, a
seeming self-parody of his earlier style. Still, he recouped it all with
The Old Man and the Sea (1952), which won him the Pulitzer Prize and
led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He committed
suicide in 1961 — barely 60 — after suffering from what today would be
diagnosed as bi-polar disorder.
Interest in the Human Aspect
Picasso and Hemingway shared an intense interest in the human condition.
Unlike most renowned artists before him, Picasso showed little interest
in landscape. His subject was invariably the human form in all its
diverse aspects, literally and figuratively. Poets, writers, drinkers,
prostitutes, musicians, circus performers, and others — these are the
subjects of Picasso paintings.
Hemingway — despite the often exotic and colorful settings of his works
— is ultimately concerned with the individual’s response to life’s
vagaries. Place is just the stage on which the human drama unfolds. His
heroes are always, sooner or later, called upon to exhibit the famous
“grace under pressure,” which Hemingway would argue is all anyone can do.
Other parallels:
* Both men were celebrities as well as artists, famed for their
lifestyles as much as their work.
* Each was a bon vivant with his own style.
* Both had multiple wives and numerous (it is said) mistresses.
* Each had, later in life, an infatuation with a much younger woman
(who shows up in his work).
* While Picasso used his celebrity to survive (some would say avoid)
war, Hemingway seemed to chase it; yet both artists in their work
railed against the futility of war and its devastating effects upon
humanity.
Each century spawns a shortlist of individuals who are instrumental in
shaping the culture of their times. In the 20th century, Picasso and
Hemingway must be near the top of that list.
A Selected Ernest Hemingway Bibliography
On-Line Picasso Project: An Extensive Catalogue
“Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism, conservation, and the suspension of
identification.” A great comparison of Hemingway’s In Our Time with Cubism.
Originally published on Apr 23, 2009 on Suite101.com
