Pablo Picasso: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Painters Book 5)

by Hourly History

As he once said, “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” The modern world was constantly changing. For Picasso, that meant art had to change.

“Art is an instrument in the war against the enemy.”

“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”

Picasso’s old friend, the poet Max Jacob, was taken to a concentration camp, where he died within months. His body was returned to Paris, and Picasso attended the funeral. He was risking censure by the occupying Nazi forces but didn’t care. Many others in the artistic community kept away, but as one of the best-known artists in Europe, Picasso could get away with such a stance. The Nazis knew his value and offered him special concessions for his cooperation. Picasso refused. He dealt with the food shortages and lack of heat himself rather than dealing with the Nazis. When Germany’s ambassador to France offered him coal in exchange for supporting the Third Reich, Picasso refused. “A Spaniard is never cold,” he retorted.

During these years, Picasso was forbidden to exhibit his art, which was considered too degenerate under Hitler’s new art policies. He kept on working but was constantly running out of supplies. This new dilemma forced him to seek some innovative new approaches. Instead of focusing on his paintings, he began to work on sculptures. He created sculptures using any material he could lay his hands on—a broken piece of metal, an old cigar box, a bike handle. His well-known Head of a Bull was made of pieces of bicycle material.