6^th July 2022 Mrs Annie Teo

Some time ago, Dr Beena shared her personal experience of being introduced to Cubism and Picasso (Finding Beenasso – 6^th May 2022). I attend art classes at the same school as Dr.Beena. I had to paint my self-portrait in Cubism style, and I must confess that the memory of that compartmented and dismantled head and face of mine left me quite disturbed.

In fact, I have always found Cubism art unpleasantly disturbing or let me simply say that I do not like it. But then again, how can I “simply say” I do not like the works of perhaps the most famous artist in the world: Pablo Picasso and with him the likes of Georges Braque, Henri Fauconnier and Fernand Leger? Somewhere, something did not fit with my rejection. Hence. I started to look a bit deeper into their work (thank you Google!).

What did I find out? That everything is not so square at all with the Cubism Art Movement. In fact, I did fall in love with a few of Picasso’s and Fauconnier’s artwork. I hope you will be tempted to for yourself and go the extra click.

I thought I needed to amend and somehow exorcise that shocking self-portrait. For that, I found a contemporary artist, Bekah Ash. Her “Heavy Head Girl” made me feel so good that I painted my own version with watercolour, making use of the tips given by students from my art class.

And what about my relationship with Cubism now? I guess it always pays not to be so square-minded and instead look beyond the first impression, even when it is a negative one😊.