Italian artist uses tractor to create world's largest portrait of Picasso

The artwork was created to mark the 50th anniversary of the Spaniard's death

An aerial view of artist Dario Gambarin's tribute to Picasso. Photo: Dario Gambarin/Reuters

Italian artist Dario Gambarin has produced what he says is the world’s largest portrait of Pablo Picasso, in a field in Verona, Italy.

Gambarin recreated a 1907 self portrait of the Spanish painter using a tractor, to mark the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death on April 8.

Picasso painted at least 10 self portraits over the course of his career — his earliest in 1896, when he was just 15 years old and lived in Barcelona with his family while attending the La Llotja School of Fine Arts. His final self portraits were created in 1972, when he was in his 90s.

Each work serves as a marker of his evolution as both a man and an artist.

The 1907 self portrait is considered to be among his most important, because it chronicles his transition from Primitivism to cubism, two of his most famous oeuvres.

In the 1907 portrait, produced in oil on canvas, Picasso rendered himself in angular, geometric shapes — from his almond-shaped eyes and elongated triangular nose, to the patterning on his jacket. He also employed thicker, darker outlines on his face and clothing, resulting in dramatic contrasts.

Gambarin has managed to to recreate these defining elements of the work, in spite of his unusual choice of canvas — a stretch of wasteland in Castagnaro, about 80 kilometres west of Venice.

This is not the first time Gambarin has gone to ground to create his unusual artworks. Born in Verona in 1958, the multidisciplinary artist has also used his tractor to create portraits of Nelson Mandela, Leonardo Da Vinci and Dante. In 2013, in a 25,000 square metre field belonging to his parents, Gambarin created an image of Pope Francis, while presidents Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and John F Kennedy have all had their faces rendered in the earth.

Gambarin’s efforts are not restricted to portraits. He has also created a series of land-art pieces that focus on environmental issues, such as Cop26 Glasgow and radioactivity.

Last year, he used his art to send a message about the worst drought in Italy in 70 years. He carved out a huge drop of water, with a globe contained within it, with the words “save water” flanking it in enormous letters.

"Art is an adventure of the spirit, of thought and of the creative imagination," Gambarin says. "Only those who have the courage to face this journey with free will, taking the risk of their integrity, can explore these multifaceted realities."