Towards a review of the concept "classic Picasso" (1915-1923)

Historiographic criticism against the simultaneity of the artist

Abstract

The present study will try to determine the consecration of the concept "classic Picasso" to allude to the work made by the artist between the years 1914 and 1923. This idea was defended by Anthony Blunt and Phoebe Pool in the 1960s, authors who found in the work of the artist from Malaga certain allusions to classic or classicist works, this allowed them to frame said work in the movement of the return to order. These ideas were based on the work of Alfred Barr and on the magazine Cahiers d'art edited by Christian Zervos. We will deal with what each of these authors understands by "classic Picasso", both in the formal aspect, as well as in the thematic and iconographic aspect. Finally, we will contrast his ideas with more recent theories defended by authors such as Palau i Fabre or Elizabeth Cowling, who from the 1990s began to notice subjective elements in the artist's work that moved away from the classical ideal, while defending the prolongation of his cubist style in the works of those years. Thus, the present study aims to present a multiple and diverse Picasso during the proposed stage, capable of working with contrasting poetics, always using an innovative language that was far from responding to the classical canons.