Picasso's Genius Revealed: He Used Common House Paint

livescience ^ | 08 February 2013 Time: 10:43 AM ET | Clara Moskowitz

[BenLurkin]

Art scholars had long suspected Picasso was one of the first master artists to employ house paint, rather than traditional artists' paint, to achieve a glossy style that hid brush marks. There was no absolute confirmation of this, however, until now.

Physicists at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill., trained their hard X-ray nanoprobe at Picasso's painting "The Red Armchair," completed in 1931, which they borrowed from the Art Institute of Chicago. The nanoprobe instrument can "see" details down to the level of individual pigment particles, revealing the arrangement of particular chemical elements

[riverrunner]

The question remais did he use it because that is what he had or for other reasons.

[tallyhoe]

I don’t like his paintings!!!

[BenLurkin]

Necessity is the mother of invention!

[buffaloguy]

I am not a Picasso fan.

[Past Your Eyes]

[max americana]

“I don’t like his paintings!!!

Me neither. When I was in Europe, I preferred Dali’s, especially up close.

[jobim]

One of the 20th Century’s grand architects of moral anarchy.

[FrdmLvr]

I do like cubism.

[layman]

My nine year old granddaughter brings a lot of her art work home from school that look like Picasso ‘masterpieces’. I hope she outgrows it.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I like his paintings I just can’t afford them. Sooooooo I just take out my house paint, canvas board and brush and copy the ones I like then frame them and hang them. I love it when people walk in and say “Is that a Picasso?” :-)

[USMCPOP]

I think Picasso painted the porch of my first house. It was built about in the 1930s. In fact, I think he built the porch itself. It was sort of crooked in that style of his.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Beginning in the 1930’s many artists began experimenting with synthetic paint, including household paint. When Jackson Pollock employed his “drip” technique in the 1950’s he used a mixed media of traditional oil paint, house paint and sometimes an acrylic. Since the 1970’s a number of his most valuable works have required extensive restoration because much of the paints he used deteriorate in a short time.

[RedMDer]

Freepers, your Contributions make every difference!
Please keep ‘em coming! Thank you all very much!

[Jeff Winston]

He was a true jeenyus.

[miss marmelstein]

Oddly enough, Leonardo had the same problems!

[FamiliarFace]

I don’t mind Picasso, but I love Dali!

[max americana]

We were on a Euro trip 4 years ago, when in Spain, we went to his home. It’s close to the beach and they served us wine, bread and cheese while everyone walked on the estate.

[ottbmare]

Picasso was a fraud, and he admitted it with great bitterness.

[notted]

Picasso’s work spans an incredible range of styles and complex construction. look up the images he produced as a teenager and in his twenties, start from there and watch a progression of unparalleled talent, most of us who are poor in aptitude wish we could possess a mere fraction of his vision, even though many of his works were uneven and even monstrous, some are incredible inventions of extraordinary insight and beauty.

I believe you will find more than a handful of examples you will enjoy.

Remember its only art.

“Art is long, life is short.”