Langston Hughes and Pablo Picasso. Visual & Performing Arts

Langston Hughes and Pablo Picasso
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Langston Hughes and Pablo Picasso
Introduction
Throughout history, writers and artists have tried to influence society with their works that communicate important messages. A writer whose work has been influential in society is Langston Hughes. Hughes was part of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic movement that celebrated the life and culture of African American people in the 1920s. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter whose paintings had a significant influence on history and society. The pieces of art of these two great individuals were instrumental in influencing the society positively. This paper examines Hughes and Picasso and their works as well as how they influenced society.
Brief Discussion of Hughes and Picasso
Born in 1902, Hughes is one of the most celebrated writers of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that involved African American artists and writers expressing themselves through music, literature, art, and stage performance (History, 2009). His creativity was influenced by his upbringing in Harlem, a primarily black neighborhood in New York City. His poems such as “Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “The Weary Blues” communicated important messages for society (Kelley & Bloom, 2010). Picasso, on the other hand, was born in Spain in 1881 and is considered one of the most influential and greatest artists of the 20th century (Biography, 2019). Just like Hughes, he was part of an art movement, Cubism, which he created alongside Georges Braque at the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, they both had significant influences on society through their works.
Hughes
Hughes was a famous black poet, essayist novelist, playwright and political commentator. As described above, he was an outstanding representative of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and was known as the "Black Laureate Poet". Hughes's literary activities throughout his life were closely linked to the African American movement of his time and were closely related to the fate of the vast majority of black people. Hughes's creations truly and profoundly reflect the social life of black Americans and talk about their suffering and bitterness, joy and hope, as well as the pursuit and desire for freedom and democracy.
Love of his own nation and pride in the civilization and dignity of his race are most fully manifested in his famous early poem “Negro Speaks of Rivers” The poem was written in one go by Hughes, 18, on his journey to Mexico. He said, "it took ten minutes to a quarter of an hour" (also the first poem published by the poet). When talking about the writing process of the poem, the poet described his father's "weird aversion" to his compatriots, and said that he did not understand his father's thoughts because "I am a black man and I like black people very much." Then, the poet talked about the train slowly passing over the iron bridge over the Mississippi River. He thought of the fate of the black people from this ancient river and thought that President Lincoln himself took a raft down the Mississippi River in order to abolish slavery. In New Orleans, he thought of the other rivers that black people used to live in the Congo, Niger, and the Nile in Africa. This is how poetry came about.
After reading the complete poem, it is not difficult to see that the poet described the entire history of the civilization of African Americans from "Pangu Kaitian" and African ancestors to becoming African Americans. Black people are an ancient race. They worked hard on the earth and also contributed to human history. Although this poem does not directly describe the suffering and struggle of black people, it can arouse the black people’s national pride and pride, their desire for freedom, and strengthen their confidence in fighting for a better future. The poem is condensed, deep, and slow-paced, but it contains unfathomable power.
According to the Poetry Foundation (n.d.), Hughes also wrote essays to fight evils in society such as racism. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” he talks about how African American artists intended to express themselves without shame or fear. His approach, however, received some criticisms from other African American intellectuals because it portrayed the undesired view of African American life. Nevertheless, his pieces of literature were instrumental in influencing society.
Picasso
Born in Malaga, Spain, Picasso demonstrated artistic talent right from a young age. He was poor in school but showed interested in art. According to McNeese (2006), Picasso’s interest in art was influenced by his father who was an art teacher and a painter. At a young age, he concentrated on art at the expense of other subjects. As he grew up, his interest and talent in art developed. He was always looking for interesting sites to sketch. When his family moved to Barcelona after his father had gotten a job when he was 14, an opportunity to join the city’s School of Fine Arts emerged. He moved to Madrid two years later as he sought to join the Royal Academy of San Fernando but was frustrated by the focus on classical techniques and subjects. He later went back to Barcelona where he was inspired by radicals and anarchists that influenced him to break away from classical techniques that he had learned from school.
Picasso used different styles as he wanted to reinvent himself constantly. His diversity was a result of him trying to find the best technique and form to attain the desired effect. According to him, dif...