Palau i Fabre: art, literatura i vida al Picasso blau

Abstract

In his Picassian studies, Josep Palau i Fabre used a highly nuanced approach to scrutinise the works of the Blue Period; whilst not overlooking its formal components. The inferences that were drawn from his studies have helped enrich the classic discourses on the subject. Of all of Picasso's creative phases, the Blue and Rose periods are undoubtedly those with the strongest poetic and autobiographical charge; to the extent that Picasso's work can be read as a monumental biography. In this sense, Palau i Fabre deciphered that the harlequin represented a cross-cutting figure, from the Picassian code, as a counterfigure to the modern artist faced with an industrial society in full decline. Besides being a poet, Palau i Fabre was a Picasso biographer; he showed himself to be the best interpreter of this period’s major paintings, which were often cryptic or hard to fathom. He did so by using a highly suggestive language that very often deviated from the conventionalism of art history and instead proposed readings within reach of anyone with solid foundations in the plastic arts or literary field.

Keywords

• Palau i Fabre Josep
• Picasso Pablo
• blue period
• rose period