[Art] Pablo Picasso’s “Woman Ironing”
Pablo Picasso’s paintings, despite the historical significance in the world of art, have parts which are unapproachable and incomprehensible. Although his cubist works are fascinating in that they open up new perspectives Picasso had during his time, his works are, sometimes, esoteric thus to some even a bit elusive causing to fail to produce any immediate reaction. However, the “Woman Ironing” is special in that, at its first glance, it gives off that unpleasant chill, begging the question — what is just happening here? And what is this deadly scene?
Picasso’s “Woman Ironing” hangs as part of the Thannhauser Collection at the Guggenheim Museum. This painting takes your eyes to gaze in solemnity, makes you hold your breath, and wonder in frown. A woman is ironing with her head tilted to one side and her shoulder dispositioned and bent downward. Her hair falls off her pale face. Her eyes (or eye balls) are as if they have been removed and her colorless face and body are as if a corpse has awaken from its coffin to finish off her unfinished duty — ironing. The irregular and vulgar brush strokes of dirty white, bluish grey, and dark mud color paint — the colors of Blue Period, a period where Picasso goes through a severe depression after his friend’s death — make it appear to be in even deeper exhaustion and fatigue state. This painting of a woman delivers an inexplicably uncomfortable sensation — almost feeling commiserative for her. Picasso’s intension to capture death and to give it a physical form is hypothesized here.
When Guggenheim cleaned the surface of this painting with infrared camera, they revealed another painting underneath, of a male artist sitting by his easel. Hinted from this is that Picasso was in deep poverty at the time, to a point where he had to reuse his canvas to paint. His poverty appears implicitly through his subjects he selected. But in ‘Woman Ironing’ there seems to be a deeper psychological state reflected — that is the vanity of life. In addition to poverty, his subjects concerned with commoners diligently working, doing house labors, or living in poor condition, perhaps surviving their way through life — mothers, children, beggars, blinds, prostitutes, and drunk.
Death is powerful, slowly feeding off of the fragile souls. The Blue Period, was a vulnerable phase where Picasso searched for meaning in life, contemplated on death, life, living, and situations that surrounded him, and questioned the irony that surviving everyday only puts him closer to death. He captures a sense of connection and bond with the viewers in this painting by laying out all his emotions, that viewers may be experiencing every day in their daily lives. He reveals himself as nothing more than just a man living a life — submitting to the natural order of life, thus evoking a sense of empathy. After all, everyone is bound to think about the journey of life — where it is heading, where it ends and how to embrace it as something natural.
