Oct 25, 1881
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Apr 8, 1973
Life and achievements
Early life
Pablo Picasso, one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, was born on the twenty-fifth of October, 1881, in Málaga, Spain, into a family of artists. His father, José Ruiz Blasco, was a painter and a drawing and painting teacher, and he influenced Picasso's art from childhood. Picasso was a very talented child in drawing and even outdid his father and other artists in his village.
In his early years, Picasso's family had to move around within Spain because Picasso's father was a professor. Picasso's family moved to Barcelona in 1895 when he was 14, where he was exposed to the city's artistic life. He entered the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and decided to become a painter. However, Picasso was not satisfied with his academic education; he wanted to explore more and more styles and techniques, and he could work in a rather wild, bold, and unorthodox way.
Picasso left his family home in La Coruña at 16 and went to Madrid, where he joined the Royal Academy of San Fernando. But he got tired of the academic routine and refused to attend classes, preferring to spend his time away in the city's coffee houses and art galleries. Here, he first encountered the paintings of Spanish and European artists such as El Greco and Francisco Goya, whose works influenced his early work.
Picasso was born in 1881, and in 1900, he went to Paris for the first time to find the center of art in Europe. This visit can be considered one of the most critical milestones in his career development as he focused on the works of Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Symbolists, who were fearless in breaking the rules of academic painting. At this time, Picasso started to use new styles and tried out different methods of painting and other themes to work on.
The problem of financial instability and the fight for independence in his early years could not but affect Picasso. Still, his character and incredible imagination allowed him to overcome all the difficulties. He had left Spain for good in 1904 and began to spend most of his time in Montmartre and Montparnasse, the two most progressive districts of Paris. During this period, Picasso started to form his style, depicted by the fragmented forms, geometric shapes, and the use of bright colors.
In 1907, Picasso painted one of the most famous paintings in the world, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which is considered the first piece of Cubism. Cubism, an innovative art movement that was also fostered by Braque, introduced the concepts of depictions and the shift from classical perception into the art of the 20th century.
His personal life also affected his works of art in one way or another. He had intimate affairs with several women, some of whom were his muses, such as Fernande Olivier and Eva Gouel. Such relations led to the creation of emotional and rather intimate images of women in his artworks.
When the First World War erupted in 1914, Picasso had already become one of the most influential artists of his time. A man always full of new ideas, Picasso, who worked for seven decades, created works that challenged the traditional categorization of art, including sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, and stage design.
Picasso's early life was very important in developing his art and laying the foundation for his future accomplishments. His volatility and desire to transform his art at every opportunity significantly influenced the modern art movement.
Legacy
Picasso's contribution to the art world cannot be measured by his sales or auction prices but by his impact. He was born into a family of artists, where he received a very strict upbringing that helped him hone his skills. His early paintings show his mastery of techniques and the spirit of innovation, which became the basis for the new movement that he initiated, including Cubism.
His contribution to the Cubism movement as one of the co-creators, along with Georges Braque, is also widely known. Cubism was interested in something other than a conventional language of representation. Instead, it depicted objects through fragmented and fragmented forms and viewpoints. This departure from realism altered the depiction of objects and figures in art and greatly influenced the course of twentieth-century painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music.
Cubism was not only one of the most important movements in painting, but it also spread to other fields, challenging artists to be creative and effective for many years.
In addition to Cubism, Picasso's artistic career is best described by the word' evolution.' He experimented with various styles and media in a career spanning five decades. He constantly painted in the styles of Surrealism, Neoclassicism, and Expressionism, among others, to challenge the norms of art. He remained an active artist up to his death and was always in the vanguard of the artistic movements of his time; his fearlessness inspired many artists who came after him.
His artistic career was not limited to painting; he also created sculptures, ceramics, prints, and stage designs. His works express his feelings, situations, and relationships, as well as his position regarding essential political events like the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Guernica's painting is one of his best-known works, a piece that remains a powerful message against war and violence.
In this respect, it is possible that Picasso's character and lifestyle significantly impacted the formation of the legend. He was a man of great energy, a rebel with a non-conformist approach to life and love, and many women became his lovers, models, and inspiration for his art. All these aspects of his life, his genius as an artist, contributed to the formation of the legend of Picasso and his status as a cultural hero.
Picasso's art is still admired and showcased in exhibitions, museums, and galleries across the globe to this date. His works are still being studied and debated, and his impact on the current art world is still felt. Picasso's talent for expressing human emotions and experience through new forms will make him remain relevant for many years as he will continue to inspire artists and art enthusiasts.
Milestone moments
Jan 1, 1901
Blue Period Begins
In 1901, Picasso began another prominent period called the Blue Period that covered from 1901 to 1904. In this period of his life, Picasso mainly used shades of blue in his artworks and that’s why this period is named after the color that was most commonly used in his works. It was not about colors but about choices and preference, and not, in his case at least, for superficial motives but to convey ideas and feelings.
One cannot fail to note the emotional focus in works created during Picasso’s Blue Period, which is a reflection of an understanding of poverty and sorrow in human life. These themes, in a way, stirred Picasso’s empathetic response to the social status and boiling situations in society. The works of Picasso primarily remain a message about the psychological and emotional effects of poverty and loneliness, as it is possible to observe the essence of human existence in his paintings.
Among the famous paintings of Picasso in the Blue Period, we can mention the “The Blue Room,” the “Old Guitarist” and the “Blue Nude.” All of these works illustrate the masterful ability of Picasso to convey a sense of empathy and passion through the color that has been chosen and the configuration of the picture. As for the song and the album as a whole, “The Blue Room” describes an atmosphere that recalls melancholy blue-purple shades where the shadows and reflections exist in references to individuality and solitude.
In the “The Old Guitarist”, the main character is depicted entirely hysterically with his instrument he is an old man bent over, the dominant color uses blue to portray a sense of hopelessness. With the basic outlines of sexuality lowered to nothing more than cool blue lines, the viewer is left facing the sensitivity of the human form and its exposure.
Mar 4, 1907
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Statements of facts that can be illustrated by literary journalism are the following: In 1907, Pablo Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon which is considered to be a first piece of Cubism and a revolutionary in art of the twentieth century since the realism has been left behind in it.
“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” shows five galleries of a naked, and each of these figures is sculpted with geometrical shapes. It would be interesting to think that Picasso decided to make them in this manner, as this was very different from some polished and natural looking busts seen in this period. Picasso used the figures of geometric shapes and sharp edges, these distorted conventional perception of reality and made the viewers understand a new vision on how forms can be created in the picture plane.
The title of the painting is ‘El cabaret’ which signifies a street in Barcelona containing specific buildings of prostitution; therefore suggesting the notions of sexuality and people’s interactions. But Picasso does not merely decorate it; he refines, intellectually and spiritually, the representation of the subject; it is an endeavor to understand form and space as well as human character.
This picture entered art history not only as a masterpiece of the formalist approach, but as a work that makes a multifaceted contribution to the development of Cubism. This art movement initiated by Picasso alongside George Braque was an attempt at depicting objects from more than one perspective and using geometric shapes in representing objects and figures.
May 18, 1917
Working with Sergei Diaghilev & the Ballets Russes
Picasso began a huge project in 1917 – he became the official artist of the Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev, a company of ballet that shocked and amazed Europe by its productions. This partnership was the initial time that Picasso engaged himself in performance art, though he provided set and costume for the ballet titled ‘Parade’.
The audience could have seen “Parade,” one of the symbolist ballets which incorporated music by Erik Satie and choreography by Léonide Massine; this was a ballet pantomime with circus idioms. Picasso was also the main influence shaping the definite visual image of Pop art. Picasso’s approach to set designs and costumes was liberal, together creating an environment more liberal than the conventional theatrical standards based on Cubist art.
Cubist images and forms were introduced by Picasso into “Parade”; geometrization of shape, intense coloring, abstraction, and volume, that were evidenced within the theatrical construction. In the sets, he used factors such as efficiency perspectives and geometric weave, reflecting his innovative approach to depiction. Likewise, the costumes, for they, undermined the traditions; some of them were made of unexpected materials and shapes, focusing on the dynamic lines of the dancers’ movements and responding to the thematic aspect of the ballet of a modernist period.
This is the symbiotic work of Picasso with ballet Russes, which defined the early twentieth century art of art and performance. It highlighted the versatility of Picasso as an artist, who while being able to create a new world of artistic ideas, was also willing to apply his creations in a new and risky sphere of theater. The success of “Parade” proved Picasso’s versatility, and his impact did not only stop there; he set the ball rolling into the amalgamation of Visual arts and Theater.
Apr 6, 1937
Guernica
This year, in 1937, Pablo Picasso painted the picture Guernica which is a large artwork and is considered to be one of the Picasso paintings which is political in nature. The scale of the mural is quite big, it is 3 meters height, and its photo resembles a billboard. This fence has a height of about 5 meters tall and 7. It was constructed in 1937, 8 meters wide, and was made by Pablo Picasso in the Spanish Civil War because of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica.
About a month the civil war between the Nationalists and Republicans broke out in Spain, Picasso painted this work of art known as “Guernica”. Picasso chose black, white, and gray because these colors are associated with burial, mourning, and hopelessness. The painting is filled with symbolic imagery, abstract human forms, suffering animals and destroyed constructions, for creating an atmosphere of the terrible and awful consequences of warfare.
The layout of the piece is rich and dramatic, which is characteristic of Picasso’s genuine sentiment and horror induced by the act of war. Often crooked and bent, tight gripping, and wild looking eyes are depicted which give a very good portrayal of the pains of the war and turbulent time in human life history.
However, “Guernica” has evolved not only as an artwork but as a symbol of peace and a piece that condemns violence. In fact, it is one of the most complicated war photography representations representing human suffering and appeal for compassion during human crisis. Through the art, the message of the mural is tender to stir more emotions and encourage thought on what war entails and why the fight for peace should at all times be foremost.
Apr 5, 1946
Ceramic Innovations
In the 1940s Pablo Picasso experimented on the art of pottery and having embarked on this artistic era in pottery at Madoura pottery workshop that is in Vallauris in France. This period represented a large extension of Picasso’s facilities on a broad spectrum beyond paintings and sculpture.
Cohesively, Picasso’s obsession with ceramics is traced to his urge to work on three-dimensional forms and learn new forms of artistic practices special to ceramics. For a long time, Madoura offered Fry’s a perfect place for cooperation, since the master artisans helped him turn his creations into ceramics. This made it possible for Picasso to create varying and sophisticated types of artwork, from fun and novelty packaging designs to creative and sculptural works.
Fragonard looked to upturn and replace classic values, although he did not present as strong personality of an artist as Picasso, who in his ceramics based on his paintings introduced themes and motifs. Faces, animals and other shapes explored in the works of Cornwall became the basic foundation of the ceramic pieces, but the artist had to consider how could he successfully construct these in volumetric forms. His ceramic pieces are marked free, but skillful; they are an artwork that displays the spirit of the artist and at the same time displays the technical mastery the artist has over clay and glaze.
It has been noted that Picasso greatly expanded his practices in ceramics throughout the 1940s, not only adding a new dimension to the artist’s exceptional career, but also reaffirming ceramic art as a progressive type of artwork throughout the world. This is proven through his playful and playful experimentation together with his inventive spirit in ceramics that showed his progression as an artist that never ceased to break free from bound and search out for new frontiers to tap in.
Sep 11, 1944
Return to Classicism
In the late attics, the achievements of Picasso were his styles tilted towards the Neoclassical from the avant-garde that he earlier on portrayed. This was more formal looking art characterized by an almost complete rejection of modernism and a move towards realism and with at least elements of neoclassical influences.
Following the contemplation of artifacts of the classic art, the art created by Picasso in this direction deviated and adapted themes and motifs of Ancient Greece and Rome. Since, this was quite distinct from his previous ‘Cubist’ and the experimental periods he had gone through. The Neoclassical phase in Picasso’s practice involved subjects whose representation would tell a story; often these referred to myths and fables and other forms of history.
Among the key pieces from this period, one must mention “The Charnel House”, 1944–1945. Analyzing this painting, it is possible to notice warring motifs and existential experiences which Picasso went through, and traditional motives combined with modern techniques. Even though it is based on classical motifs, “The Charnel House” is still unmistakably Picasso’s work with expressiveness and dramatic intensity while staying loyal to modernist approach to execution and composition.
Picasso’s Neoclassical period which emerged in 1946s is the depicted versatility of Picasso as an artist who was not static but rather innovative in his art work and period painting creations. While this phase was certainly shorter than such movements or styles stereotyped as Picasso’s as Cubism or Surrealism, it reveals the painter’s inclinations to synchronize his art with the shifts in culture and history.85