Symbol of the twentieth century, great artist, Pablo Picasso was a painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist. Came to France at the beginning of the century, he became the leader of the Cubist movement with his friend Georges Braque. With exceptional thirst for creativity, it affects all artistic movements of the twentieth century, surrealism, expressionism and neo-classicism, to become one of the undisputed masters of modern art.
Artist from an early age
Born in Málaga (Spain) in 1881, Pablo Picasso is the son of Don José Ruiz y Blanco, a painter and art teacher, and Maria Picasso y Lopez. Picasso painted his first oil painting at the age of eight. Encouraged by his father, he studied at the Guarda in Corunna and then at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. At the Exhibition of Fine Arts and Industry of Barcelona, his First Communion table is presented. Although not winning, he is greeted by a major newspaper.
In 1900, Picasso went for the first time in Paris with his friend Casagemas. He discovered the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Degas and Gauguin. We begin to buy him some paintings in France and Spain. His painting Last moments (which was later covered by La Vie) was presented at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The following year, the artist decided to abandon his father's name (Ruiz Blanco) in favor of the now world famous for his mother, Picasso.
Casagemas committed suicide in 1901. Very touched by this event, Picasso made several portraits of his former friend inaugurating the Blue period. Picasso moved into the workshop of Casagemas in Paris.
Blue Period (1901-1903) and Rose Period (1905-1906)
It is called the time between 1901 and 1903 because this period Blue color dominates the paintings of the artist. This blue is used to recreate the vision that the painter of the world, a mixture of fear of old age, poverty and death.
After returning to Barcelona in 1902, Picasso settled permanently in Paris in the Boat wash-house in 1904. He falls in love with Fernande Olivier, which will brighten somewhat his paintings. He is interested in the world of the circus, painted harlequins, jugglers and acrobats in a pink tint that evokes a certain melancholy. This rose period ends in 1906, when Picasso began to create more geometric paintings.
The birth of a movement: Cubism (1906 - 1914)
As it enters its twenty-fifth year, Picasso changed his style of painting. It breaks down and reproduces objects into simple geometric shapes. Cézanne, African tribal art and Iberian sculpture would be the inspiration of the artist when it turned to Cubism. With the Demoiselles d'Avignon that this new style explodes in 1907. That same year, he met Georges Braque with whom he develops the power of Cubism. The two work closely together.
To address the problem of representing what exists in three dimensions on a two dimensional surface, Braque and Picasso bring a new answer. They replace the usual color codes, volume and by a system perspective geometric signs. They will add it in a subsequent phase (synthetic cubism), the use of pieces of different materials (sand, paper, metal, wood, fabric, cardboard ...) not to fall into abstract art. Picasso Cubism abandoned in 1915.
Return to classicism (1916 - 1924)
At the request of Cocteau, Picasso designed the sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He meets the ballerina Olga Koklova, he married and give him a son. The artist returns a time in the figurative and realistic art some family portraits. From the 1920s the painter's works tend toward the surreal. He painted large bathers to dislocated body.
In 1927, a new woman appears in Picasso's paintings. This is his mistress Therese Walter. This will make many portraits and sculptures.
Guernica or the horror of war
In 1937, a civil war torn Spain, Picasso was very moved by the bombing of Guernica. He chose to make to honor the order of the Spanish Government for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, to represent the tragedy of this city. Through this monumental painting, which is one of the most famous painter, Picasso expresses his anger and revolt. This is the first political commitment Picasso. Guernica universally symbolizes the horror of war. In this struggle for peace, Picasso painted in 1949, the beautiful dove for peace.
Despite the austere climate of the Occupation, the creativity of Picasso unabated. He wrote a play "Desire Caught by the Tail" in 1941. He painted dark works on the theme of human folly as "Charnel". In 1944, he joined the Communist Party. This period will light in 1946 when the artist falls in love with Françoise Gilot. This new love and the euphoria of liberation gives cheerfulness to the painter that runs the table the joy of life.
In 1948, the artist explores a new artistic medium, the ceramic. In 1954, he met Jacqueline Roque, whom he married in 1955 after the death of Olga. It attaches to the time of works reinterpretation of great masters such as Picnic on the Grass Manet or The Women of Algiers Delacroix. Picasso went to live in 1961 in Mougins in the company of Jacqueline Roque. He died April 8, 1973 at the age of 91 years as a result of a pulmonary embolism.
Protean and prolific artist (it is estimated that he has performed more than 30,000 works), Picasso revolutionized modern art. With Georges Braque, he gave birth to Cubism. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was the first significant work of this movement. Painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist, his genius was recognized in his lifetime and now a dozen museums in the world exclusively devoted to it.
