Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso: Thematic Continuation of Picasso's Epic Painting Guernica

Sara Kielbasinski
20th Century Art
Lannette Mullins
January 31, 2013
“Weeping Woman”
In the painting, “Weeping Woman” by Pablo Picasso is a thematic continuation of the tragedy portrayed in Picasso's epic painting “Guernica”. The focus of the image is of a woman crying. In www.pablopicasso.org, I found that Picasso the woman has the features of a specific person, Dora Maar, whom Picasso described as "always weeping". She was in fact his partner in the time of his life when he was most involved with politics. This painting is of a woman crying, holding something in her hands up to her cheek. She has this very bold worry line in her forehead that defines her face or her wariness. Picasso used a lot of bright colors in this painting, which is a little surprising because it’s a depressing piece. But in the center of the painting her hands, mouth and face are a very gray blue color to make you feel sad about it, and feel the emotion. The brightness of the color yellow and green is maybe emphasizing the dull color in the middle. The movement of this painting cubism the objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form used most in woman’s face. He depicting objects like her eyes nose and hands took them from one viewpoint to another. This painting to me seemed a little terrifying at my first glace first but it also stood out at me. Most cubist art are not pleasant to the eye but for me, this painting is beautiful and interesting. I feel the painting is different then the ones I have seen but like most it is a bit confusing. But for me it seems that it is a book that tells a thousand words yet it delivers a single story; A woman gives love and receives and feels pain in return. The woman in the painting experiences an extreme physical and emotional torment. The strokes of the line and the curves are unpleasant and physical discomfort experienced by the woman, it seems that she is violently struck and injured. The edges of her hat and the dress illustrate her strong feeling of grievance and displeasure. The flower represents her womanly image and the blue color of it explains that her femininity is being exploited. Her watery eyes and tears obviously show unhappiness and hopelessness. The balance of this artwork maintained a state of harmony- balance. The colors, the lines, shapes, sizes and direction all hold a place creating a balanced artwork. All the colors are bright but are varied, the lines are mostly thick but they contrast well towards the colors. The shapes are balanced because of the many different sizes. However, there is a rhythm to the painting. All the shapes are original to say the least but each one in turn has its own sort of character giving every part of her face a different part of the story, which her whole face tells. The colors seem to contradict each other in every feature of her face but they also complement each other because of their contrasts. The dominant colors however, that have been used throughout the painting in a rhythm sort of way, using the yellow, green and blue. These colors are the main colors of Maar’s face and are used throughout the whole portrait.
Overall I thought this was a great piece and I thoroughly enjoyed analyzing it. I found many things that popped out to me looking more into it. The emotion in her face is enough to show that Picasso really cared.