Picasso, encyclopedic sculptures in Boisgeloup, in 1933-1934

Abstract

One of the most original sculpture methods invented by Picasso was the one he named encyclopedic, in which the creative technique was used with an unexpected freedom giving birth, once again, to new representative space or creative foundation. Moreover, on the one hand, the creative duality acknowledgeable in the formal aspects, must be added, considering the genius contribution of the amazing technique, with which he integrated real objects in modelled configurations in a certain degree, always essential, capable of integrating diverse densities and textures recognizable in their original character and provided of a novel sense of expression in its new function. And on the other, for specific visually solid compact groupings in the bronze castings. Until now, they had not been fully studied. The detailed study of all Picasso’s Boisgeloup encyclopedic sculptures of the period between 1933 and 1934, offered here for the first time, without exclusions of any kind, allows the identification of the origin of the different resources and elucidate the order of appearance with their determined scope.