Nu accroupi 1960

Pablo Picasso made this oil on canvas painting, Nu accroupi, at an unknown date. Picasso was working in France, and his approach broke with the traditions of academic art. By using a fragmented form, as we can see in the woman’s angular and distorted face, Picasso was challenging the Western tradition of representing the body in a naturalistic and idealized way. It can be related to other art movements of its time, especially cubism, which was about representing subjects from multiple viewpoints at once to give a more complete and intellectual picture. Historians of art are concerned with the conditions in which such works come to be made, looking at documentary and archival sources such as letters or exhibition reviews to better understand these important cultural shifts. The rejection of traditional art is associated with a progressive cultural shift toward abstraction.