Picasso's Encounter with Concrete

Abstract

SummaryThis article explores Picasso’s encounter with concrete, and how it brought architecture into his sculptural work. Picasso’s concrete sculptures have a formal connection with the contemporaneous international architectural style Brutalism, particularly in regards to the specific roughness of aestheticized objects. Pierre Gascar tells us in the introduction to Picasso et le beton of the duality of concrete that is at once rigid and compact, but can take any form. The mutual influence and crossovers between disciplines could be seen in different parts of the world at that time, and was indeed noted by theorists such as Theodore Adorno, who in his 1966 essay “Die Kunst und die künste,” observed this tendency with specific reference to Fritz Wotruba and Hans Scharoun. Importantly, this blurring must be understood, not only in relation to sculptural influences on architecture, but also in regards to the influence of architecture on sculptural form, as is the case, for example, in sculpture that has specific architectural characteristics that resemble béton brut. Picasso and Le Corbusier exemplify the mutual influence and crossovers between the art and architecture of that period. These considerations show that concrete, as a mainstream symbol of modernity, occurs not only in architecture, but also in art history. From the 1960s onwards, there is an entire range of artists that started using the material extensively. Picasso was the archetype of this shift, towards the material concrete.