(some links may be NSFW) Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Paris branch recently took to the Centre Pompidou for a session of drawing and modernist art. Models were inspired by several paintings in the gallery, such as Otto Dix's Portrait de la journaliste Sylvia Von Harden (1926), Fernand Léger'sComposition with Two Parrots (1939), Man Ray's Ingre's Violin (1924), Robert Delaunay, Erté, and Pablo Picasso. Here are photos of the session as well as some of the sketches.
posted by shakespeherian on Feb 20, 2012 - 7 comments

A Hidden Picasso: Will Shank always suspected something was buried beneath Picasso's Scène de Rue, a somber street scene painted by Picasso in the fall of 1900 during his first stay in Paris. X-rays revealed a second painting: a nightclub scene which appeared to be the prototype for Picasso's Le Moulin de la Galette, a 1900 painting thought to be the first Picasso made in Paris. Technicians extracted the colors visible through the cracks in the surface of Scène de Rue and transferred them onto a black-and-white radiograph.
posted by fandango_matt on Mar 27, 2007 - 17 comments

This time-lapse video of an oil-painting being created by Pablo Picasso is brief, but captivating. The clip is a scene taken from the 1955 French documentary "The Mystery of Picasso," in which director Henri-Georges Clouzot filmed the artist painting 20 different pieces. Bizarrely enough, almost all the art created for the film had to be destroyed upon close of production due to contractual obligation. Via
posted by jonson on Jan 1, 2007 - 28 comments

The Power of Art? This interesting article becomes extremely clever if you think about some of the basic history of "Guernica". Little-known artist Picasso (see '37 for initial ideas, '45 for completed painting) was commissioned to paint it after the horrific slaughters of the Spanish Civil War. “...Picasso's tour de force would become one of this century's most unsettling indictments of war.” (more inside)
posted by valval22 on Feb 6, 2003 - 11 comments

Ever hear about the time Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire were taken in by the police under suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa?
posted by interrobang on Aug 16, 2002 - 3 comments