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WHO WAS PABLO PICASSO ??

Chapter 1

The Boy Wonder

            On October 25, 1881, in Malaga in southern Spain, an art teacher and his wife had a baby boy. They named him after many saint and relatives: Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los RemediosCipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Years later that baby became known as the great artist, Pablo Picasso.

           Pablo could draw before he could talk. His mother said his first word were “Piz! Piz!” That’s baby talk in Spanish for lapis, which means “pencil.” When he was really little, he liked to draws spirals or anything in the sand. If he drew a horse, he could start from any pointand make a very good picture in one line. He could do the same with paper and scissors. Pablo’s first known painting was of a bullfight. He was only about eight years old when he did it.

          

            Pablo had two younger sisters, Lola and Conchita. Sadly, when Pablo was still young, seven-years-old Conchita died of diphtheria. The whole family was crushed. For the rest of his life, Pablo had a fear of died.

            When Pablo was thirteen, he has his first art show. By then, his father saw that Pablo painting better than he did. So he gave his son all his brushes and paints and never painted again.

            Pablo and his family moved to Barcelona. Pablo was accepted to the local art school were his father taught drawing. Even though he was only fourteen, Pablo skipped the basic courses and went right to the advanced ones.

            Pablo’s career really began when he was sixteen. He did a painting called Science and Charity. His sister Lola and his father were his models. The painting was really realistic in style. It won a prize at an exhibit in Madrid. Pablo beat some of the best artists in Spain.

            Pablo’s family sent him to Madrid to study art at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, but Pablo skipped class a lot. He ended up spending a lot time goofing off cafes. He also loved going to the famous Prado Art Museum, where he saw the work of the Spanish masters El Greco and Francisco Goya.

            In winter, Pablo came down with scarlet fever. He left school and went to the little village of Horta de San Juan. He had a lot of time to think about his future. Pablo decided not to go back to school. His family was not going to like that, but Pablo was restless and ready to be on his own.

Chapter 3

Life in Paris

            Moving back to Paris-this time for good-was one cause. Lively Paris worked its magic on Pablo. He became happier. He started doing colorful paintings of jugglers and acrobats in a traveling circus. The other reason that his Blue Period ended was Pablo had a new girlfriend. She was a beautiful artist named Fernande Oliver. His happiness showed in his painting. This time in Pablo’s life is something called the Rose Period, but his painting had many colors. Not just pinks.

            Pablo and Fernande lived in a big, run-down apartment building that was full of artists and poets. Their room was damp and a mess with lots of projects going on. Pablo didn’t like to throw out anything. He said, “Why should you want me to throw away what has done me the favor of coming into my hands?”

            They had a big, yellow dog named Frika. Pablo liked to worked at night by oil lamp. He often worked until five or six in the morning. In winter, the room was sometimes so cold that leftover cups of tea froze overnight.

            Around this time, Pablo was meeting lots of interesting people in Paris. They thought he was interesting too. He was intense and complicated. He could be very charming and his curiosity, energy, intellect, and originality caught people’s attention.

            He met a rich American women named Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo. Gertrude was a poet. She had written the famous line, “Rose is a rose is a rose.” She was one of the first people to really appreciate Pablo’s paintings, and she bought some of them.

            Pablo met the painter Henri Matisse at the Stein’s house in Paris on Saturday night. Pablo thought Matisse was the greatest painter of time. Even thought they were competitors, they became lifelong friends.

            After working on a portrait of Gertrude Stein, Pablo realize that he didn’t have to paint exactly what he saw. He could paint what he imagined. It was a turning point in the history of modern arts.

Chapter 5

Something New

            By 1909, Pablo was becoming well-known. He and Fernande moved into a fancier house. They spent summer with Barbeque in an old villa in the mountains. Then he and Fernande broke up.

            Soon Pablo had a new girlfriend, Eva Gouel. Pablo painted a picture of Eva, called Ma Jollie, which means “My Pretty Girl.” Pablo was in love again.

            Once again Picassso and Braque were on something new. They started using stencils and printed words in their paintings. They also began pasting things on to their pictures. If they wanted a newspaper to be shown, they stuck on a piece of newspaper. That was how collage began. Collage means “to stick.” One of Pablo’s first collage was called Still Life with Chair Caning. Braque and Pablo went on, in their playful way, sticking anything even trash onto their painting.

            In 1914, a local war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia grew into what became known as the Great War—Word War I. The Archduke of Austria was killed by a Serb. Germany backed Austria-Hungary and Russia backed Serbia. Germany declared war on Russia, and then on France. Soon countries all over the world were involved, including the United States.

            In 1914, Braque was drafted into the French army. Pablo not a French citizen. He didn’t have to join the army. He stayed in Paris while many of his friends went off to fight.

            France was fighting against Germany and the French thought anybody German was an enemy. Because Pablo’s friend, the gallery owner Kahnweiler, was German, he was forced to leave France. The gallery was closed by the French authorities and all of Pablo’s work there was confiscated.

            In 1915, Pablo’s dear Eva died of tuberculosis. Pablo was brokenhearted. He had worked on one painting while Eva was sick, Herlequin, and finished it after she died. It shows a a clown like  artist in front of an easel holding an unfinished painting. The background is black. It was a black time in Europe and in Pablo’s personal life as well.

Chapter 7

War and Piece

          Some artists work on one idea and in one style. But Picasso changed all the time. Picassso’s painting reflected what was going on in his personal life as well as was happening in the outside world.

            In 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out. Picasso was living in Paris, yet he was deeply affected by the war in Spain because he was a Spaniard, after all.

            In Spain, a Republican government had been elected. But it was overthrown by General Francisco Franco and his forced. Franco was a dictator and ruled Spain until his death in 1975. Because of Franco, Picasso never returned to his native country.

            In April, 1937, the town of Guernica in northeast Spain was bombed by the Germans who were helping Franco and his men. Guernica was not far from Picasso hometown. The bomb fell on market day. More than sixteen hundred people were killed. Almost nine hundred more were injured. There was no military reason for the attack.

            Picasso was outraged by the murder of all these innocent people, he painted a huge twelve-foot-high-by-twenty-six-foot-long painting called Guernica. He finished it in just three weeks. 

            His new girlfriend, Dora, took many photographs of him working on it.

            Then, in 1939, World War II started after the German army invaded Poland. Fearing bombings, museum in Paris closed down. Much of the art was moved and hidden in the countryside. Many artists fled the city. Picasso with his family moved to Royan, a small town in France on the Atlantic coast.

            In 1940, the Germans occupied Paris. So, Picasso decided to move back to his studio there. Perhaps, Picasso hoped his presence would be a proud symbol to the French of defiance and freedom.

            It was hard to get food. Art supplies were also scarce. Even so, Picasso managed to paint every day. He also wrote a play. the Nazis did not approve of any of his work. But that didn’t stop Picasso!

            Picasso left Dora. He met a young artist, Francoise Gilot, and began a ten-year-long romance with her.

            In 1944, the Nazis were finally driven out Paris. Picasso kept on Painting. He sang loudly while he worked to drown out the sounds of the gunfire. As soon as the Germans were gone, Paris had a party. The city was free again and the war was almost over.

            American soldiers poured into Paris. Some said the two things they most wanted to do were see the Eiffel Tower and meet Picasso.

            

             The seconds World War lasted six years. Picasso had now lived through three wars. He knew how important it was to work for peace. In 1948, he went to the Peace Congress in Poland. The following year, he made a poster of a dove for the Peace Congress. Because of Picasso, the dove has become a symbol for peace all over the world.

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Resensi : Wonderfully Stupid (Elsa Puspita)

  

Judul                                   : Wonderfully Stupid

Penulis                                : Elsa Puspita

Penerbit                              : Bentang Belia

Penyunting                          : Dila Maretihaq Sari

Cetakan                              : Pertama, Juni 2012

Tebal                                  : vi + 222 hlm; 19 cm

ISBN                                  : 978-602-9397-36-9

BIOGRAFI PENULIS

Elsa Puspita lahir di Ketapang, 10 Desember 1993. Beliau merupakan anak dari Hermanto dan Misnah. Sejak kecil beliau gemar membaca buku cerita. Pada usia 17 tahun beliau memulai menulis novel dengan mengikuti lomba menulis cerpen. Karya novelnya pertama beliau yaitu Wonderfully Stupid. Novel tersebut berhasil memenangi lomba tersebut. Setelah berhasil pada Novelnya yang pertama, beliau menulis sebuah novel lagi yang berjudul Lovhobia.

Kelebihan Buku

Kelebihan dari buku ini adalah jalan ceritanya yang sangat menarik, terutama tokoh Arsen dan Lanna. Arsen adalah tokoh yang sangat ceria, tampan dan menjadi pujaan hati seisi sekolah sangat gigih untuk mendapatkan Lanna sang pujaan hati yang juga kakak kelasnya. Lanna tidak lantas menerima Arsen karena Arsen adalah adik kelasnya dan 5 bulan lebih muda darinya, di samping itu Lanna juga masih menunggu cinta pertamanya, Ega. Buku ini sangat cocok dibaca oleh kalangan remaja karena jalan ceritanya yang sangat “fresh” dan jarang ditemui di buku lain. Pembaca akan disuguhkan cerita lucu tentang betapa gigih dan konyolnya Arsen untuk menarik perhatian Lanna dan seketika dibawa terhanyut oleh sosok lain Arsen yang merasa kesepian. Begitu juga dengan Lanna yang melakukan hal “bodoh” dengan menerima perasaan Arsen. Gaya kepengarangan penulis sangat terlihat “muda” dengan bahasanya yang interaktif siapapun yang membaca buku ini akan paham dengan jalan ceritanya.

Kelemahan Buku

Pertama, penceritaannya cenderung mengarah kepada kehidupan dan dinamika kisah asmara seorang remaja, sehingga menimbulkan kesan sasaran utama pembacanya seorang remaja dan bukan untuk semua umur. Kedua, penceritaan dalam buku ini benar-benar memfokuskan pada kehidupan pribadi tokoh utama (Lanna), sehingga menimbulkan keterbatasan peran dan ekspresi dari tokoh-tokoh lainnya. 

Ketiga, penceritaannya juga sering tidak sampai selesai, sehingga menimbulkan pertanyaan dari pembaca mengenai lanjutan dari kisah sebelumnya. Keempat, penulis membuat cerita dengan alur yang berubah-ubah, sehingga membuat pembaca harus mempunyai daya tangkap dan juga imajinasi yang tinggi untuk memaknai bagian demi bagiannya. 

Dan terakhir, konflik yang dimunculkan dalam cerita juga  hanya berupa konflik utama, dan subkonflik yang muncul sebagai akibat dari pemfokusan pada konflik utama tersebut. Sehingga cenderung membuat pembaca dengan mudah menebak lanjutan ceritanya karena konflik kurang beragam dan fokus cerita memang kepada tokoh utama.

Ringkasan Cerita

Alanza Quinna atau lebih dikenal dengan nama Lanna, siswi kelas XII IPS 3 di SMA Mutia. Gadis biasa-biasa saja dengan teman yang biasa pula. Hidup Lanna yang tadinya tenang-tenang saja berubah 180˚ sejak ia naik ke kelas tiga. Bukan karena tuntutan belajar yang makin mencekik melainkan karena ulah salah seorang adik kelasnya.

Andersen Jade Calvin atau lebih dikenal dengan nama Arsen, siswa kelas XI IPA 3 di SMA Mutia. Junior dengan wajah manis, tubuh atletis, mata abu-abu kehitaman, populer, calon ketua tim sepak bola sekolah, junior sinting yang seenaknya saja memberikan nama panggilan baru untuk Lanna, tidak pernah absen mengajak Lanna pulang bersama setiap harinya, norak, dan si bunglon yang selalu berganti warna rambut setiap harinya dengan pilihan warna yang selalu membuat sakit mata. Keseluruhan, Arsen mimpi buruk bagi Lanna.

Arsen menyukai Lanna, tapi Lanna menyukai Garvin Julian, alias Ega. Seorang sahabat yang tiba-tiba menjauhinya dua tahun silam, tanpa Lanna tau apa alasannya. Meski teman-teman Lanna selalu menyarankan agar Lanna menerima Arsen saja untuk menjadi pacarnya daripada menunggu Ega yang tidak jelas, Lanna tidak pernah mau mendengar. Setampan dan sepopuler apapun Arsen disekolah, bagi Lanna hanya Egalah pangeran hatinya.

Hingga Arsen menyatakan lagi cintanya pada Lanna dalam sebuah acara dari sebuah produk minuman di sekolah mereka. Lanna yang sedang kesal setengah mati karena melihat Ega tersenyum manis pada salah satu adik kelas lantas langsung saja menerima Arsen. Mereka resmi pacaran walaupun Lanna masih mengharapkan Ega.

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