What Can Students Learn from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period

We might all know Pablo Picasso, or at least would have heard of him. One of the greatest artists of his century, Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter whose art pieces are auctioned for hundreds of millions of dollars. He also is known to have founded the famous art revolution called ‘Cubism’. Picasso and his paintings are widely celebrated even today; and maybe that is the reason why the students and learners of this generation, should know about it and learn from his works of art.

With this blog, we will try to highlight how we can, as teachers, use this tool to teach concepts to our 21st-century learners.

Between 1901 and 1904, after the death of Picasso’s best friend Casagema over an unsuccessful relationship, he got into depression. This was the period in which almost all paintings by Picasso had monochromatic shades of blue, blue-green, and sometimes grey. He mostly painted beggars, sex-workers, homeless, and blind people. We have tried, through this blog, to highlight a few themes that teachers can use to impart in students, using Picasso’s paintings.

1. Human Suffering

As you could see in the pictures, almost every painting had some sort of pain or tragedy behind it. Every painting had strong elements of human suffering; somewhere through torn clothes, sad face, hollow eyes, a malnourished physical appearance of the characters.

2. Friendship

Pablo Picasso getting into depression after his best friend’s death only goes on to prove how true their friendship would have been that affected Picasso for three long years. Students can be asked to value their friendship and relationship with their parents over every other material possession.

3. Mental Illness

We may now be a little receptive towards the idea of mental illness being an ailment just like a physical one; but back then, people never had heard of depression let alone about therapy and seeking help. Through his painting, Picasso certainly puts on paper what is his frame of mind, which wasn’t very good. Students can be asked to study his paintings or teachers can help students interpreting them so as to make them understand how critically important is mental health and what it can do to any human being.

Tools like these could prove to be very helpful while teaching students themes that impart compassion and other moral values. Pablo Picasso is a painter that has revolutionised the way people look at modern art and even though our textbooks don’t teach these, we as teachers, can always use them as supplementary materials in the classroom.

If you have any other idea which is similar to this, do let us know by dropping it in the comments and keep watching this space for more thought-provoking blogs.