Picturing the Life of Picasso

One of the qualities in the classes at CEA that I genuinely liked the most were the field trips that we always got to partake in. Being able to go with our teachers to the different places we had been learning and hearing about was one of the best ways to gain exposure to the culture and history of the city that we could have asked for. Besides having field trips in this class, Past & Present, I also had many field trips in my Architecture & Painting class which provided me my third major cultural experience. For weeks we studied and learned about the life of the infamous Picasso and Spain's influence on his works of art. Barcelona and Spain has a special connection to Picasso as he was born here and spent many summers working and living in Spain. Barcelona specifically also has one of the most complete art galleries of Picasso's works. After studying the many different periods of work that Picasso moved through and interpreting many of his pieces of art we took a field trip to the Picasso museum just off of Carrer de Princesa straight across from Plaza Jaume I. Right after entering the quaint seeming museum from the small alleyway it resides on you're enveloped with all of the colors, designs, and ideas contained in Picasso's works. It is crazy to think how this unbelievable art gallery was right "under my nose" in a sense in the same city and had I not taken a field trip for an art class there I may never have visited it. Granted, I am not typically a museum person but visiting this specific museum in connection with learning so much about Picasso's life in general and specifically in Spain even inspired me to write my final paper in that class on his career and abundant number of works. This was truly a successful cultural experience that I am glad i was in a way pushed into because I ended up gaining a lot from the experience and am happy that I know so much about Picasso now.