Still Life with Bull's Skull," Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas (1939)

written by Sunny Kim. Aug 07, 2007.

Since the 21th century, art has been playing a tug of war and riddles with people. It seems to put people to the test intellectually, whether they are eligible for appreciating it or not. For that reason, many people don’t like modern and contemporary art.

The more recent the artwork, the harder it is to understand. But, every not modern artwork is an unsolved mathematical problem. One of the reasons Pablo Picasso is so famous is that his paintings pose understandable speculations.

This one has a table in front of a window. The perspective of the painting is just highlighting the table, so it occupies the whole space. The table is red like a brick, and there’s a bull’s skull as an ornament, a spiral-patterned vase, and 2 fresh pieces of fruit on it.

The bull’s skull, opening its eyes and mouth, has crack lines, so it’s likely to be old and real. Although it’s a skull, it’s not ugly, but a little mischievous as it glances down at you for fun. And, the vase twists itself and fresh pieces of fruit are mixed with ripe and unripe colors.

Every element is facing toward the front, but you can see them from every angle as each element is stretched away like a blueprint. It seems he is trying to show off each figure’s property not even leaving out shadows. They cast shadows toward left-top to right-bottom, in triangular shape. This is not only distortion. It is intellectual re-analysis of things. That’s why Picasso’s paintings are priceless and received attention early.

Outside the window, spring is in the air. Following the line of window frames, a hint of spring is expressed by white and very light pink colors. There’s a pink tree in the middle of the window. It’s like a cherry blossom in full bloom. And it spreads triangular shapes over the window. I think it might be sunshine through the window.

Really smart! At first glance you could feel it monstrous due to the weird skull and vase, but the blossom tree and triangular lights take on the role of diluting that feeling. So it becomes a beautiful scene in one fine spring evidently.

Picasso named it ‘Still life with bull’s skull’. The date it is painted was January 29, 1939. Yes, it’s not spring but still winter. I have no idea about this contradiction.  Maybe a pink blossom tree is   illusion for life like its title or maybe he completed this painting over the course of one year.

Who knows? This is for you and other viewers to decide. This adequate obscurity is exactly its attraction.