The artwork “Bull (study)” by Pablo Picasso, created in 1946, exemplifies the Cubist art movement. This particular piece is a sketch and study that falls under the genre of “Eleven developments of a lithograph.” As a notable example of Picasso’s exploration of form and abstraction, the artwork serves as an investigation into the essence of the bull’s shape through progressive simplification.
In the artwork, a sequence of bull figures is presented across the composition, showing a transformation from a more detailed and traditional depiction of a bull to a highly abstract and simplified version. Each figure bears a number, indicating the sequence of the study. The earlier figures feature more realistic proportions and details, albeit still stylized in Picasso’s unique manner. As the series progresses, the bull is reduced to essential lines and shapes, losing detail and representational accuracy but gaining abstract power. By the final rendition, the bull becomes an interplay of light and dark, a mere shadow of its original form, distilled into the most basic elements that still suggest its fundamental characteristics. The movement from figuration to abstraction is not only a demonstration of Picasso’s artistic virtuosity but also an intellectual exercise, stripping away the extraneous to reach the core of the subject’s visual identity.
