The Great Collaboration: Picasso And Stravinsky

In the early 20th century, Paris, France, was the epicenter of revolutionary artistic experiments. The most important experiments were pioneered by two, legendary artists, Igor Stravisnky and Pablo Picasso. Picasso and Stravinsky were experts in different fields. Picasso was a painter, while Stravinsky was a composer. It is quite strange that a painter and a composer chose to collaborate together but their collaboration marked the beginning of an entirely new innovative artistic movement. Throughout the duration of this essay, this paper will dive deeper into the relationship between Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky and how they are able to be compared due to their modernistic approaches towards art. These modernist approaches hold significant importance as to why and how modernistic art evolved. Their original styles of art were in fact almost polar opposites, but as the saying goes, “opposites attract”.

Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky can be compared due to their similar approaches in creating new forms of art. Pablo Picasso is well known for being the pioneer behind the Cubism movement. The Cubism movement took place between c.1907-1917 and it consisted of “analysis of natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane (Pablo Picasso’s Cubism Period, pablopicassso.org).” A lot of his influence came from historical pieces of art, such as, African masks. This was art that had never been seen before but has aspects of it that relate to previous artistic styles. Cubism made an impact on not only paintings but all different styles of art. Within 10 years of the start of Cubism, numerous other painters had joined the cubist movement, such as Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Albert Gleize, and Jean Metzinge (Plunkett, Art Periods: Cubism)” Pioneering this movement made a great impact on the world’s art history and influenced other artists to step out of the “norm”. During the same time as the Cubism movement, Igor Stravinsky began to pioneer Neoclassicism in music. Neoclassicism in music was when composers would use 18th century music as inspiration for their work in the 20th century (Neoclassical Music, newworldencyclopedia.org). It became exponentially popular in the early 20th century and Stravinsky was in the forefront of it all. Similarly to Picasso, he was able to begin a movement and influence other artists from across the globe. In comparison, Stravinsky and Picasso were both “genuine revolutionaries… who also moved through the extraordinarily successful adaptation of available late-nineteenth century or symbolist modes… which revealed completely new possibilities for the basic techniques of their art” (Jonathan Cross, Stravinsky)

Picasso and Stravinsky both used other’s influence to create a style of their own. They implemented other techniques used in other forms of art, into their own. Each of their ideas were brilliantly thought out and innovative during the time. It is extremely incredible to look back and realize that two of the most reputable and famous artists of the 20th century were built on the foundation of creating “stylistic change and range.” (What Stavinsky and Picasso do have in common, theguardian.com). Both of their artwork consisted of creating their own art while using past elements as influence for their work. Shockingly, all of this took place prior to them meeting for the first time.

Fast forwarding a few years later, in 1917, Picasso and Stravinsky were introduced to one another by Sergei Disgilev, a Russian ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes (Classicfm.com). Sergei believed that it would be beneficial to all parties involved if all three of their creative minds worked together to help create something special. Stravinsky and Picasso were not strangers to creative collaboration and they began to brainstorm immediately. Their work together began by sending minor pieces of art to one another through the mail. Specifically speaking, “Their goal was for Stravinsky to draw inspiration from Picasso’s modernistic approach and incorporate his unique Cubistic styles into a musical composition. Their creative minds worked well together and they started to work on their first real collaboration that was the first of its kind. This collaboration between Picasso and Stravinsky was titled, “ragtime”. Picasso drew the cover art for Stravinsky’s using his cubism approach. This allowed for cubism and neoclassicism to intertwine with each other on the same work of art. This then “laid the foundation for their artistic work as a pair” (Ross, Classifcm.com). The work that they were able to achieve together is astonishing. Picasso A few years later, the duo began to work on ballets that consisted of both of their distinct styles. Specifically speaking, the ballet, Pulcinella, was written by Stravinsky while the set and costumes were designed by Picasso. The vast majority of their work was completed, by Picasso, writing out his ideas for the stage design (Carr)

Overall, Stravinsky and Picasso are able to be compared because they both had distinct modernistic approaches towards their style of art that led to the creation of their collaborative works. They both got their inspiration from previous artistic works but were able to effectively able to create, distinct, industry-changing, works of art. As creatives, Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso were able to collaborate wonderfully because of their similar ways in which they curate their work.