Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators

Their Work and Their Personalities Loomed Large in Popular Culture

Apr 22, 2009

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. 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 already 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. 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.

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.

The copyright of the article Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators in Artist Biographies is owned by Fred Hasson. Permission to republish Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.