Literally highlighting parts of the painting was so helpful. I was blind, now I see.

it's interesting how there are painting out there being sold for $40 at a pawnshop, then years later someone finds out it's a Picasso, and suddenly it's worth millions. It is the same painting nobody cared about before, but now it is a masterpiece. It's all so subjective.

What Picasso meant in that quote "It takes me 4 years to paint like Rafael, but a lifetime to paint like a child" is something all artist of different genres and disciplines tried to achieve as their final ultimate goal. Let me elaborate on what that means : When you start in your art, whether it be creating and drawing, or making music, or dancing, we etc... You have no directions but then you learn skills in your craft. Then you get to be better and more complex. At this stage your music now have all these different sounds melodies chords Bass, etc.. so you reaching to be at the peak of your complexity. Culmination of everything you learn. This is my equivalent of realism art, highly detailed textures, shades, etc... But then you get beyond that, and what is beyond that? I want you to imagine Thelonius Monk at his peak playing jazz FREESTYLE and what you hear is perfect. Not in the sense of most complex melodies, but the other opposite! Now what you hear is really simple notes and melodies BUT it's played at the right time. Just enough for you to feel full emotions of the music without unnecessary complexity. Basically maximizing effectiveness doing the least. Like Jimi Hendrix just strike one chord strumming but let it reverberate perfectly and sonically before interweaving into the next note. All while freestyling. This peak level is what I also call IN THE ZONE. Or the x factor. When an artist at his mastery playing perfectly beautiful music by maximizing the complexity of emotions but using the simplest of technique (or so it seems) What I'm trying to say is a child is pure, it doesn't have biased, it's free, so the emotion is raw. Also because a child is still inexperience it will be simple. And that is the ultimate form of art, expression. Art like Life comes full circle, so the challenge of a Master is not complexity. Is to be able to show his skills and it's complexity but able to bring it back to that child like wonder. To capture the essence of a child pure emotion and simplicity but actually was a work of a Master. I still don't know if I make any sense haha, but that's my 2cents on it. Being an artist myself.

"Maybe this is why the boat floats in a weird no-man's-land..." me frantically looking back up at the picture: "There's a boat in there?!"

There aren't that many youtubers that criticize paintings, you honestly stand out.

'Hey look at this funny painting I drew of fishermen!-Picasso probably.

Could you do van Gogh?

I'm sure even Picasso would be surprised that his painting became so meaningful 😂

This video is unreal. Extremely good.

I would like say that all the people in the comments are right about what this piece means, both the one who says it's deep, intellectual and the one who says it's just two dudes fishing. A painting is a work of ones life and his experiences, it's representation. So what the artist truly wanted to say can never be on point without him actually saying it to the point. So what we "see" is what we want to see, the meaning, is a reflection of your own life. It can be profound or simple, disturbing or pleasant, it can be anything. It will not be same as someone else because everyone is unique with their experiences, so one doesn't need to argue with others perspective just because it doesn't match yours. In the end, what's the TRUE meaning behind this painting?..it's the one you give it. :)

I really love Picasso's blue period. It's so emotional and raw, the paintings can be overwhelming. It's depression painted beautifully...

To all the people who are saying nerdwriter1 is reading too much, and that Picasso perhaps meant nothing much in this painting-Picasso himself said to somebody who told him this exact thing , that just because she doesn't know Mandarin, doesn't mean the language is meaningless, but rather its because she is ignorant. Hope you guys remember that. Art is a language and it ALWAYS MEANS something ,whether consciously expressed as in Expressionism or unconsciously as in surrealism

your appreciation for art is infectious

This is so cool! I never take the time to usually dissect a Picaso painting because I'm usually put off by the weird, warped shapes, but this helps me appreciate him more

Loved it! In particular, the first 36 seconds are absolutely brilliant. They almost draw you into the video and make you want to stick around for more.

In those 8 minutes and 10 seconds I learned more about Pablo Picasso than in months of art class. Excellent content, keep on with what you're doing! Thank you.

Okay this was an amazing video. I know nothing about art and paintings and you made me want to learn more.More people need to see this

If Picasso was alive, he would probably say , "what is this guy rambling on about? I was drunk at the time." Still great video though.

Dear Nerdwriter, the choice of music in all your videos complements just beaitifully the images and narration. Thanks.

This is honestly my new favorite channel. You don't get unparalleled editing with great narration as well as deep analyses all together in one video these days! Keep it up!

my god, i just found this channel and it's everything i wanted. i am an art lover and student and i love not only the content but also the narrative of the videos, the storyline you create to make your point. this is just amazing. thanks!

I'm disappointed to see all of the dismissive comments, especially given that this channel is dedicated to the sort of intellectualizing being derided. Regardless of whether you agree or not with his conclusions, the way he thinks about art is interesting and worthy of consideration. The guide he sets out applies to any work of art, beautiful or ugly, pretentious or humble, ancient or modern. Having said that, I personally drew slightly different conclusions based on the work and I'd love to hear what the Nerdwriter himself has to say. Foremost for me is the tension between the intimate and mundane subject matter and the physical scale of the work. As you said, this work is huge, on the scale of history paintings like "Death of General Wolfe". But I saw the subject matter as intimate and pedestrian, thus setting up this tension between form and content. Combined with the anecdote about how Picasso himself witnessed such scenes while strolling along the river, and it appears to me like Picasso is trying to capture the mundane at the same level as prior artists (and himself cf. Guernica) tried to capture the epic. Perhaps it is a last gasp of normality and calm before all that is blown up by tanks and antiaircraft guns as WWII starts. Also, could you provide references to the research you used for the work? I'd love to read what scholars in the field have to say about the work as well.

I get bored easily, but as soon as I start one of your videos, I have to watch it through. I've learned so much. Thanks for that.

I just discovered your channel, and it's amazing, you do a really good work, thank you ! It feels so good to be explained an art work, I really respect people that are able to analyse and see things in Art that I would completely miss myself.

For some reason, I always feel as though all those hidden messages are actually just a coincidence, and the works people always describe are really something else... But I'm probably just crazy

Absolutely BRILLIANT interpretation, I am a bit surprised you didn't even mention the 4 pronged fishing spear. In traditional art and mythology the spear is always represented by 3 prongs. Picasso must have known this. Fisherman also use 3 pronged spears, so why the 4 prongs? I have a theory. Maybe each prong represents a person in the painting.Or Maybe each prong represents: Spain, Italy, Germany, and Japan, and the Fish they are 'about' to kill represents...

I recently discovered this channel and it instantly flew up in my top 10 best youtube channel. Great content.

These 5 steps for Image Analysis is the same process I am taught in art academy on how to read an image. Quality content on this channel

Thank you very much. I'm going to use this next semester for my art history class. My students love art, but they need to learn how to think and talk about it in more depth. This will be a big help.

srsly the german youtuber behaind had brought me to your channel and I was interested because of nerd-content. But your art explainations giving me goosebumps on my frontal cortex. I love this format and you should be doing more of this. Because I sense a growing painter mindset , clearer on the edge than most painters have themselves.

Picasso's instinct was to paint as a child for a child is innocent and unknowing of the world and its surroundings. To reach deep within to his child-like state was to express the innocence and purity of a child untouched by worry, grief, solitude, and hardship. The free flowing lines in a carefree motion was exemplary of his later works. His abstracts hold a special meaning delighting many a child and those with a child-like instinct, his paintings represent what is pure and simple in life yet gives the viewer a glimpse into his childhood.

You just blew my mind. Thank you for giving me the tools for properly analysing art, man!

Well done. So helpful to work off of an outline with a solid conclusion.

If you ridicule the analysis of art ant think this channel is pretentious I don't know what you are doing here. Amazing video and painting, definitely one of the most influential artist of the last century.

I love that you made us look at this painting (mostly) throughout the 8:10 video. The average painting view is something like 20-30 seconds and I saw things several minutes in that I would not have noticed had I looked at this for 30 seconds or one minute. I agree with this being a co-piece to the tragic Guernica. Thank you for the time you spent analyzing and presenting this beautiful painting.

I keep returning to your video because the way you open it is great.

This is what UKposts should be about! Amazing, smart, well made content. Keep it up, Nerdwriter. You rock.

I like your approach to this one, the editing is a lot more striking compared to some of your other videos. It feels more like an advert than a documentary. That's neither good nor bad but I like it in contrast to your other videos. It has a sense of confidence, and I liked how you brought the stages of analysis itself to the foreground; it feels more involved with the audience. Keep up the good work, you're still my favourite UKpostsr.

Great rapid intro on Picasso's life and work -and the detailed analysis of the work offers a useful template for considering the work of all artists.

This is an excellent look into the work. I think it has really helped me to understand this piece in a much deeper way, both with this one and when considering my impressions when looking upon others.

i should be studying for my finals, but im here binge watching all those videos. great content dude

Yet again another amazing video! You're my favorite youtuber, nerwriter1!

Helpful video and good ways to look at a Picasso. The symbolism and meaning behind his work can be powerful with a full understanding

Your ideas are so clear...loved it🙌

I fucking hope one day people will stop being so SCARED of the word ART and the word MEANING. Because yeah, you can read into someone's work and not get it, but to say you're reading 'too much' into it - especially when it's a prolific and masterful artist- you deny the artist's whole internal monologue, thoughts, feelings. When you paint, when you dissect something, diagram it whatever, you don't just 'do it', you put some thought into it, or a lot. You make sketches after sketches, select the best elements, perfect your technique, spend countless nights thinking it's not good enough, it's shit, etc. And then you present it to people, you get feedback, you produce a reaction. Some will love it, will read into it, some will properly analyse it- if you're someone with a record of producing good work, for example- and the people not appreciative of art will look at it superficially and say "yeah it's cool" or "whatever I can draw that", completely forgetting that when someone painted that, they dedicated days or months to a single final piece of their work - it sounds stupid, and it is, but artists are too self-absorbed to not offer their inner world to people. I realise there are a shit ton of bad artists (whatever that means, I call them kitsch) out there and there are artists who do things like post-rationalising or reactionary art, but don't dismiss anyone for creating, looking at or into art. And I use art in the widest term possible- think your kids' fridge drawings to intricate crop circles. youtube rants wow

Great video 👍 Even Picasso didn't knew about his painting that much.

wow.... i.... just... wow.... I've never seen a piece of artwork broken down and explained in such an in-depth way like this before... amazing

This has one of the best introductions of any of Evan's videos. phenomenal pacing

Thank you for examining random things longer than I ever would and somehow making it interesting.

I'm utterly obsessed with your channel !

Whole my life I was searching for something like this, I want to learn about so many things but I don't know where to start, this is heaven to me because I want to gain knowledge about so many things, I know I want to do this, I know people do this but I didn't knew how, thank you so much for the video!!!

Right or wrong you have a beautiful way of breaking down the paintings and draw attention to details. Thanks

I'd love if you did a video on dadaism.

I love art, but at the same time I'm not sure if I'll ever truly understand it in a lifetime. I find it difficult to analyze paintings in the ways that you do. But then, I don't look at art to understand it or find its one true "meaning." I look at art to enjoy it and marvel at this very unique human desire to create, decorate, and reproduce. I'm thinking about that last word just now, and maybe that's why we make art. Just like many of us are driven to reproduce ourselves, perhaps we have a drive to artificially reproduce. Pieces of art become our "children," sent out into the future ages.

So glad I stumble upon you channel!

I love the variety of your content! Great stuff

this was amazing. I wish I could analyze art even half as well!

Can we just have more Picasso analysis videos?

your videos are so informative and well made

I'm an art historian and I absolutely love you. Keep up the great work. We need more voices for our tribe.

It really felt like you were over reaching on this one. How could anyone discern world war 2, death of picasso's mother, mistresses and wives, etc, from this painting? At best they are assumptions. What irks me most is that Picasso isn't some Renaissance painter. He lived in the 1930's. Did no one just simply ask the guy what the painting meant?

0:37 " bonjour, i'm pablo picasso, and welcome to disney channel. "

Thanks a lot for this video brother. This video sparks tons of idea for my own work. Keep Doing this Good Work for rest of us.

This channel will be on my playlist for the next months for sure. Thank you.

Whenever people talk about art I just don't understand how they see so much in so little. I seems to me that most often what somebody says about a piece of art past the basics tells you a lot more about the person than the art.

This is the BEST chanel on UKposts these days!

I love your videos. I never did understand paintings. The amount of dedication and research behind your videos are truly amazing _/\_

Your videos on art are just wonderful

I guess those steps work for every piece of art, not only Picasso

This was the most fascinating video I've watch on UKposts. You've sparked something in me.

I rarely come across such knowledgeable video. Your interpretations are very insightful, thank you very much!

great video. thanks for helping give people a structure & vocabulary to approach art.

This film makes the assumption that viewers require paintings to have a meaning that is expressed in language. When I go to a museum and look at paintings, I abandon my desire to make a rational explanation of the paintings. I allow the visual part of my brain to absorb the visual images to it's satisfaction. I think that explaining visual language is extremely difficult and based on guessing. When I view a painting I allow my visual preceptors take over and enjoy the show.

Great take on Picasso’s painting ... but I’d like to argue that a masterpiece painting (like many of Picasso) is like a dream.. you can break it down as much as you want but they’ll never be a definitive conclusion as to what it is.. In my opinion.. it’s too difficult to criticize art... unless explicitly set out by the painter ... artwork like this is like a leakage of the collective consciousness... it speaks to us but not in ways we understand

Thank you for the lesson. I think this painting is interesting but now it's beautiful.

Your last line sums up art perfectly. The quirkiness of human nature means that one person will see treasure in what another dismisses, another who insists on literal interpretation and yet another depth of meaning in something not even the artist wished to express. That is, to me, the beauty of art, it reflects life and myriad human foibles perfectly.

another brilliant video!

I don't think I will ever be able to see art the way people who can understand it do, but man this is a pretty cool painting just with the colors, that's about all I can make out of it. Awesome video! As a sidenote, you might enjoy the artist Charlie Immer, he is one of the few I can name that I actively enjoy the work of! It's really vibrant and gorey but it's awesome, I may not understand it but I love the way it looks!

Great job on that quick breakdown was very informative on my boys piece.

Your work is beautifully done. Impressive!

it doesn't matter what the author meant. art is about the experience, the understanding and the personal opinion. I've seen comments offering deep opinions and people saying it's just age and nonsense.

I have a very valid question, aren't we just retrofitting what we know to the painting? Maybe Picasso just showed his view of the night fishing. I mean it does seem like we're trying to find meaning where there is none. Why can't it just be a prosaic expression of an old man's view on a night ambulation.

I love your painting analysis videos, you have to make more of them! Please!!!

Well done lesson on art appreciation!!! Keep up the good work!

I didn't even see fishermen catching fish. I was like, "what are these weird shapes?|

what if he was just high and tried to paint 2 random fishermen?...

Congratulations, keep up the good work! It would be great if you could do another Picasso's painting.

I really dig your way of looking at an artwork.

Hey how did the Tedtalk go?

"that obviously....VERY obviously phallic head (...)" Dude, I have totally seen a donkey head here x'D

Excellent final point.... my folks went to wine fairs representing a friends winery and for tastings people were always asking what they should be looking for and their response was always, "Whether or not you like it." Taste isn't a matter of particular notes you can recognize it is a personal appreciation.

Pablo Picasso also carried around a revolver loaded with blanks, which he used to shoot at people who asked about the meaning behind his paintings. "Meaning is meaningless to me. I do not care for symbolism and I paint what I paint without meditating on a story." "What matters Is what appears in your soul, not what your eyes see and what you can name." -Zdzislaw Beksinski "A film or a paining - each thing is its own sort of language and its not right to by to say the same thing in words." -David Lynch The "meaning" behind provocative Art is actually to be discovered in the architecture of the brain. All "meaningful" / provocative art zaps us powerfully but far out of the reaches of the centers of the brain associated with logical reasoning or linguistic articulation. The meaning is powerful, it happens just as powerfully as a very funny joke or drop-dead quote or an amazing song, but deep in the visual cortex. The "meaning" is there, it is strong and poignant but INACCESSIBLE to the "thinking" or cognitive apparatus of the brain which can decode it, break it down into components, rejoin it through discerned patterns and articulate what it actually *means*. (The reverse is also true in the brain - the parts of the brain exercised when you read silently is the part where the visual cortex and the auditory cortex overlap, so you can head the words being said without uttering anything aloud). Here is David Lynch talking about how he conceived Blue Velvet - he assembled a couple pieces of disjointed imagery that resonated with him in an intuitive way. Rather than starting with a plot and using symbolism to support a story, he built a story around ideas that felt intuitively significant. You start with something real, use that to launch into abstraction, then go back and remove all traces of reality, thereby removing the connection with any "reasoning", but not from the "meaning". That's the power of great art.

Christ, 90% of these comments are critical and mean. I really appreciate this video, being an art student I really enjoyed the reading into a painting and your perception of it. I recently had to do a similar thing for a university interview, it seems some people find it easy to do and others find it as hard as walking through a brick wall. In contrast to others here in the comments with the view of "lol it doesn't have any meaning" it's not always clever to play the devils advocate and completely shut down an idea. Art is incredible and undervalued by so many for being pointless, yet art exists (I think) in two ways, either there for simply how it looks and a base feeling you can get from it or for the meaning you can get from it, the best though, have both.

I could listen to you explain any panting anytime until the end of time. that was fascinating. I did not want it to end.

I will never look at a Picaso the same. You have such an amazing talent.

Your videos are a perfect mix of virtues and quality.

I really like the rithm of the start of this video

id love to see an analysis of cy twombly, he seems like someone you would love

Excellent presentation, as always.

I loved the intro style, keep up the good work