Archivists discover Picasso's "Subtle Blue Period".
The inspiration behind the popular expression, "I'm feeling blue" must lie in the dark portraits of Pablo Picasso's early years. Until now, Spain's famous painter has been better known for his "Blue Period", an aesthetic which produced paintings resonant of Picasso's youth as an disillusioned, under appreciated and impoverished artist. However a group of French archivists has uncovered a new trend amongst a collection of previously unseen paintings, recently donated to the Picasso Foundation by the late Duke of Kent.
"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions" - Pablo Picasso
This new period sees Picasso adopt a different tonality - subtle blue.
Startlingly different to the heavy, melancholic shades of "The Blue Period", this new group of paintings reveals a side of Picasso's work hitherto unknown to the public imagination. Freed by the lightness of touch and mood that subtle blue allows, Picasso's paintings are injected with a wry wit: a playful, self-mocking take on the mental-life of the tormented artist. "Un Beso Azul Sutil" (A Subtle Blue Kiss) depicts the tragicomic cliché of two potential lovers, locked in the futile cycle of navel-gazing. Meanwhile, famous works, such as Self Portrait, are parodied, whilst others see a more lighthearted, almost bawdy, documentation of the pursuit of absinthe drinking.
Art historian and Picasso expert, Karol Jennins, commented: "The discovery of The Subtle Blue Period is exciting, not only in terms of Picasso's legacy, but also because it raises the status of a tone traditionally overlooked in the art world: subtle blue."