Picasso & Primitivism: En Route To Abstraction

The early twentieth century revolutionised painting as new understandings of humanity were discovered, interpreted and expressed. These transformations introduced and developed trends which steered processes, aesthetics and concepts away from recognised and accepted forms of tangible representation and towards non-figurative styles.As an inventor of Cubism Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was ‘the greatest of all abstract painters’ (Nash) and a forerunner of pure abstraction; through reference to Primitive artwork and its influence on Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D'Avignon and Guitar this paper aims to understand connections between Primitivism, Cubism and later trends of modern art.