One fine day in Paris, France modern artist Stephen J. Shanabrook is walking along the Seine River for inspiration when he comes upon the great (and long dead!) 20th Century artist Pablo Picasso sipping on an espresso at an outdoor cafe. Picasso invites Shanabrook to join him and the two have a conversation about their art. Picasso knows nothing about Shanabrook. But Shanabrook knows everything about Picasso. What did they talk about before the conversation was abruptly ended by Picasso who pushed away from the table in anger and stormed off, calling Shanabrook a cheat and a thief?
[Please write your story in the comment window. Grading for your version of the story will be based on factual points you researched about both gentlemen, as well as on imagination/ creativity. Your posts must have original content in them and may not use any material from previous posts to this blog entry!!
-Mr. Hoban]
First let me say, if Shanabrook ever met Picasso, he would have been less than 8 years old because he was born in 1865 while Picasso died in 1973. However if they did meet each other. Anyhow, if they did meet, Picasso would have gotten made because Shanabrook stole his idea of neo-expressionism. Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting that potrays modern objects (i.e. human body) and putting them in a very rough abstract manner.
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ReplyDeleteI think that Stephen Shanabrook started telling Pablo Picasso about the kind of art he makes, and how he takes pages from magazines with faces on them and distorts the face so you can't tell who it is. Picasso then thinks that Shanabrook is copying him because he makes pretty strange art too, and he makes pieces where a person's face is distorted, like this one http://www.greece-athens.com/pages_images/179.jpg. Shanabrook tried to tell him that he doesn't just do that, that he wasn't copying Picasso and he makes his own art, like things out of chocolate, but Picasso doesn't believe him or trust him anymore, so he walks away.
ReplyDeleteShanabrook sits down and orders a frappachino. Then the two start to discuss their art. Picasso starts to talk about how he broke into his own style of art after painting realistic images during his childhood/teenage years. His style became a mixture of styles. Picasso then bragged about he was ahead of his time because he broke away from conceptual art and into neo-expressionism. Shanabrook then interrupted him saying how conceptual art is still around and many artists, like himself, are enjoying making this type of art. He then informed Picasso that he should try conceptual art again. Picasso wanted nothing to do with the conceptual artist so he threw his expresso in disgust and stormed off.....
ReplyDeleteSo I wrote all this only to then look up top and see that he stormed off "calling Shanabrook a cheat and a thief" --> that's the part I missed. So I'm still gonna keep this ending cause I actually tried on it but I might make a alternate ending after I do my other homework.
Alrighty, then! Seems like the women are out pacing the men (or boys!!). However...none of you mentioned the "magic word/famous art movement" often used when discussing Picaso. What is it and how does it relate to Shanabrook's "Paper Surgery" technique? (Thank you, Caroline, for that link but what do you mean by "pretty strange art"? Could there be a more 'scholarly' term used for this style of painting? Let us know!!
ReplyDelete-Mr. Hoban
I can see how Picasso would think that Shanabrook stole his ideas. Picasso was one of the founders of cubism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubist. This style can seem like parts of the picture are overlapping in geometric shapes. Shanabrook's paper surgery can look very similar to this style.
ReplyDeleteOne day, Steven Shanabrook was in an art museum viewing pieces by artist who inspired him. This was the day before one of his own pieces was going to be added to the museam too. Tense, he approached the oppposite side of the room where his display is being placed. There Shanabrook saw a self portrait of one of his greatest inspirations: Pablo Picasso. Just then as if he was dreaming, the portrait spoke. Stunned, Shanabrook stared at the art with amazement. Picasso himself had seen Shanabrook's work himself through his own portrait. Picasso began to thank Shanabrook for his work. Picasso believed that it carried on his own work in cubism. With a wish of good luck and a sincere thank you the portrait was silenced. Shanabrook went home proud but also humbled in this extremely corny story about artists.
Pablo Picasso and Stephen J Shanabrook,both French natives,attend one of Paris' famous cafes called Café Les Deux Magots.
ReplyDeletegofrance.about.com/.../parisdining/.../Paris-Cafe.../Coffee-at-Caf--Les-Deux-Magot.htm -
They each order a beverge. Picasso a coffe and Stephen a cup of tea.They begin to converse about Paris life and the abundance of inspiration the sidewalk viewed cafe provides. This inspiration of Paris conversation segways into what it inspires them to create. Picasso tells Steph that he depicted mostly human bodies in a 3d form. His early work were still life paintings which was known as "analytical cubism." This means the depiction of still and uneventful life buet yet abstact. But thenhis later works used the synthetic cubism technique which was the late phase of cubism and incorporating different textures,materials and colors into paintings. Shanabrook explains his depiction of humans in a 3d and abstract way and also his use of conceptual art. Picasso was enraged and storms out and taking his coffee with him. On his way out he accuses him of cheating and calls him a theif.
At Stephen's latest art expo known as hell and back, a very uninterested buyer took a look at one of the melted figures being displayed. The buyer, who called himself Picasso, laughed and said " this is nothing compared to what I did in my rose period, I created humorous art such as this during my rose period, I used a pink tone and painted circus like characters, but my art is far superior to yours.” Stephen felt taken aback by this and countered by saying “But my art represents how people should truly look at everyday life, its not just a bunch of lousy circus animals.” Picasso brushed of this petty comment and finished his examination with “your art is a bunch of crumpled up tabloid picture magazines, which has now been followed by a bunch of plastic dolls that were melted and then frozen into deformed abominations, and with that, I will make my leave. As Picasso exited the room, Stephen was left baffled and wordless. He had thought it was a great idea to make his still melted images represent the freeze frame of the stages of beauty to death and disaster.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stephenshanabrook.com/profile.htm
http://www.artelino.com/articles/pablo_picasso.asp
Shanbrook, who having been greatly influenced by Picasso, is eager to expain to Pablo about all that he does. Shanabrook mentions that he is a big fan of Picasso and that Picasso style is similar. Pablo is flattered but is eager to know how he influenced the art of Stephen. Stephen tells him that his art is often times abstract or heavily conceptualized. He thinks outside of the box and looks for a type of beauty that is unable to be seen on the surface. Picasso thinks about his life and finds striking comparisons. He thought about his cubism era and noticed how those works of art are very similar to the abstract art of shanabrook. Also, Picasso calls him a their because Shanabrook takes objects and uses them for art
ReplyDeleteNice work, those who posted!! Great reads.
ReplyDelete-Mr. Hoban
I think that Shanabrook ran up to Picasso and said that he is a big fan of him. Picasso is flattered and asks about Shanabrook. Shanabrook tells him that he works on his art that is often similiar to Piccaso's because Shanabrook admires Piccaso so much. As Shanabrook explains his arts to Picasso, Picasso starts to become angry because Shanabrook's work is so similiar to Picasso's. Picasso calls him a theif and storms off. As he is storming off, he also throws the rest of his coffee at Shanabrook.
ReplyDeleteTwo possibilities:
ReplyDelete1. Shanabrook sat down next to Picasso and told him about the work that he got famous for. Picasso slowly realized that they were mostly his own ideas, so he asked Shanabrook if he had acknowledged him in his works. Shanabrook said no, so Picasso called him a thief.
2. Shanabrook drank his espresso.
over a cup of espresso the artists start talking about there art....Picasso wants to know more about Shanabrook's work so he asks Shanabrook to describe his work. Shanabrook tells Picasso he was a new culture artist and he used everyday life materials to express himself. Picasso thought this "kind" of art is complete nonsense. Since Picasso was a classically trained artist. He felt that this type of work was not true art he thought art was putting paint to a canvas. Shanabrook was deeply offended by his "mentor" and got mad and stormed off in a huff!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteShanabrook sat down and started talking abou how he got inspired. Picasso asked about who the painters name was who inspired Shanabrook. Shanabrook didn't know that he was talking to Picasso at this point. Shanabrook said that he wasnted to revitalize Picasso's art and "make it better". Picasso then got up from his chair and poured the hot coffee on Shanabrook's head.
ReplyDeleteGood work people!
ReplyDeleteNick Guns: You should have spoken up in class today when I read your story and "slammed" you for not going into any detail about what cubism is. (I know...I really didn't slam you!!) However, I only read your second paragraph aloud in class, and after re-reading your post, in toto, I realize that you covered the background/definition of what cubism is in the first paragraph. M' [incredible] bad!
See everybody on Monday.