AI Ways of Seeing: Homage Picasso

Part Three of the Visual Essay Series, With All Original Art

I am excited to present the third installment of the AI Ways of Seeing medium.com series, which is exploring art somewhat in the iconoclastic tradition of the great book by John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972, Penguin Books). This book was hugely influential in my intellectual and creative development.

Before exploring my Faux Picasso style, you might like to see the previous essay in the series:

AI Ways of Seeing: Homage Lucian Freud/Contemporary Humanism

Faux Picasso

Berger presents essays in words, but he also presents visual essays — paintings — and does not make any commentary on them. We will implement this idea, too. At a later stage we can talk. The art of the visual is about seeing, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, with Picasso I need to explain certain things. Pablo Picasso has been so influential, and his stylistic elements so distinctive, and his output in such large quantities, that the AI has no difficulty with finding and expressing something in a Picassoesque manner. Anyone can just put in a prompt with “style of Picasso” in it, and they will get back something. But this becomes something of a problem in itself when the result is not married with intention. So, with Picasso we need a plan.

Picasso’s greatest work, the Guernica, is a monumental canvas three and half meters tall and eight meters wide. It deals with the horror of war and is just as relevant and pertinent today as it was in 1937. It is possible to create murals with AI using the technique of outpainting, but at the moment I cannot deliver anything in that vein.

Fortunately, Picasso was also a portraitist. We will thus focus on the erotic and somewhat personal, even playful, Picasso style while trying to say something that is still relevant in 2022.

Figure 1 Homage Pablo Picasso, Maria-Therese #1, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00000–2971843142

Figure 2 Homage Pablo Picasso, Maria Therese #2, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00001–2971843142

Figure 3 Homage Pablo Picasso, Maria Therese with a Bull, Digital/Algorithmic, 1216x1536px, Serial Number 00037–3806125466

Figure 4 Homage Pablo Picasso, Maria Therese Holding a Paintbrush, Digital/Algorithmic, 2944x2944px, Serial Number 00038–264360329

Figure 5 Homage Pablo Picasso, Women with Masks and Bulls, Digital/Algorithmic, 1728x1280px, Serial Number 00039–1926720145

Figure 6 Homage Pablo Picasso, Masks #1, Digital/Algorithmic, 1728x1280px, Serial Number 00039–818331002

Figure 7 Homage Pablo Picasso, Masks #2, Digital/Algorithmic, 1728x1280px, Serial Number 00039–1563240626

Figure 8 Homage Pablo Picasso, Maria Therese #3, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x960px, Serial Number 00077–2364423469

Figure 9 Homage Pablo Picasso, At the Gallery, Digital/Algorithmic, 1664x1408px, Serial Number 00001–3046055300

Figure 10 Homage Pablo Picasso, Meat Market #1, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1280px, Serial Number 00041–2571434928

Figure 11 Homage Pablo Picasso, Meat Market #2, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1280px, Serial Number 00042–4090503690

Figure 12 Homage Pablo Picasso, Meat Market #3, Digital/Algorithmic, 1600x1280px, Serial Number 00020–3173368534

Figure 13 Homage Pablo Picasso, Meat market #4, Digital/Algorithmic, 1600x1344, Serial Number 00044–3845320810

Figure 14 Homage Pablo Picasso, Meat market #5, Digital/Algorithmic, 1600x1344px, Serial Number 00044–1214437864

Figure 15 Homage Pablo Picasso, Muse #1, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00007–918803807

Figure 16 Homage Pablo Picasso, Muse #2, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00008–918803807

Figure 17 Homage Pablo Picasso, Muse #3, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00009–918803807

Figure 18 Homage Pablo Picasso, Three Muses, Digital/Algorithmic, 1736x1424px, Serial Number 3105649363

That’s all for now. Next time we will take on a more controversial and confrontational visual style, that of Robert Mapplethorpe.

If you enjoyed this story you may also enjoy learning about my Spaceship Earth AI Project:

The Spaceship Earth AI Project