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Pablo Ruiz Picasso, 1881-1973  Pablo
Picasso is widely acknowledged to be the most important artist of the
20th century and was the first artist to have a mass following during
his lifetime. A long-lived and highly prolific artist, he experimented
with a wide range of styles and themes throughout his career. Among
Picasso's many contributions to the history of art, his most important
include pioneering the modern art movement called cubism, inventing
collage as an artistic technique, and developing assemblage
(constructions of various materials) in sculpture. Pablo Picasso was born October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain, the son of Jose Ruiz Blasco, an art teacher, and Maria Picasso y Lopez. His talent was manifested early in his life: he was painting by age 10 and by age 15 had gained admittance to Barcelona's School of Fine Arts. After two years, he transferred to a school in Madrid. In 1901, after winning prizes for various works (Science and Charity, 1897, Customs of Aragon, 1898), Picasso set up a studio in Montmartre. Prior to this, Picasso signed his paintings using both his mother's (Picasso) and father's (Ruiz) names, but from 1901 began signing with Picasso alone. By this time, Picasso was a master of the traditional forms of art, and he was employing the neo-Impressionist ideas of the schools of Degas, Vuillard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. His Blue Period covered the years 1901-1904 and commenced with a period of mourning for his dead friend, Casamegas, who had committed suicide over a lost lover. During this period, the color blue is used, in different shades, uniformly in all of his paintings. The paintings of this period expressed human misery and sadness, and were dominated by blind figures, alcoholics, prostitutes, beggars, and the miserable. The period was culminated with the painting of La Vie 1903 (right). In the Rose Period (1904-1906), Picasso recovered from the misery of the blue period with bright colors and happier subject matter. His palette began to lighten, bringing in a distinctive beige or "rose" tone, and first painting the circus performers and clowns that will populate his paintings at various stages throughout his career. During this time, Picasso met Fernande Olivier, with whom he started a relationship. She would be his inspiration and model for many works in the coming years. Harlequin Family with an Ape 1905 (left) is illustrative of this period. In late 1906, Picasso entered his Protocubism phase when he started to paint in a truly revolutionary manner. Inspired by Cézanne's flattened depiction of space, and working alongside his friend Georges Braque, he began to express space in strongly geometrical terms. These initial efforts at developing this almost sculptural sense of space in painting are the beginnings of Cubism. This is illustrated in Self Portrait with Palette 1906 (right). Picasso's Analytic Cubism movement began in 1908, when he was inspired by the volumetric treatment of form and began to paint in a style described by a critic as being made up of "little cubes". From this came the term, Cubism. In Analytic Cubism, Picasso and Braque were concerned with the breaking down and analysis of forms. They used mostly monochromatic schemes in their representations of radically fragmented scenes, showing several sides of the image simultaneously. An example of this is Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler 1910 (left). Picasso marked the change into Synthetic Cubism in 1912 with the creation of his first collage, Still Life with Clair Caning. Characterized by a wider usage of color and decoration, the shapes in the paintings remained flat and fragmented. Guitar on a Table 1912 (right) is typical of the period. Picasso also created several Cubist sculptures along with various constructions made from different materials. During World War I, Picasso went to Rome, where he met his wife-to-be, Olga Kokhloven. During the early 1920's, Picasso created tranquil, neoclassical pictures featuring heavy figures, along with works inspired by mythology. In the 1930’s Picasso became tangentially connected with the Surrealist movement, and during this time, Picasso met Marie Therese, who bore him a daughter, Maya, in 1935. Marie had an affect on some of Picasso's paintings during this time, lending to them sweeping curves and expressing an underlying eroticism. Portrait of Maya with Doll 1938 (right) and Mother and Son, 1938 (left) are from this era. In 1937, Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish government to produce a mural about the Spanish Civil War. Picasso produced a rendition of the bombed out town of Guernica (below) in which he used symbols and imagery to portray the horrors of war. Symbolism used includes images of a dying horse, a woman trapped in a burning building, and the anguish of a mother and her dead child. Guernica exhibits some characteristics of Picasso's earlier Analytic Cubism Period (1908-1911), namely, the monochromatic usage of fragmented and flat shapes, and is considered by many to be one of Picasso's most dominant and significant works. Living in Paris during World War II, Picasso's works continued in this somber tone, many times featuring death as the main subject. After the war, Picasso primarily reverted to a more classical mode of representation, possibly reflecting society's shock with the technological horrors of the war. At the same time, however, he continued to push Cubism into new paths. Many paintings from this period reflect the horror of war, but there is a consistent depiction of personal interest as well. The women in Picasso's life had a strong impact on his artistic production, and some of the best examples are from this period. Portrait of Françoise 1946 (right); Embrace 1971 (below right). In the last two decades of his long career, Picasso was more prolific than at any other time of his life and produced some of his greatest works. He achieved a level of effortless artistic expression that has yet to be fully appreciated. Matador and Nude Woman 1971 (below left). During his later years, he worked with all manner of media to produce art, welding, and poetry. Working until the end, Picasso produced over 20,000 works during his lifetime. In celebration of his 90th birthday in 1971, the Louvre Museum in Paris honored Picasso with a large retrospective of his works. It was the first time that a living artist’s works had been exhibited in the famous museum. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973, at the age of 92, in his villa near Mougins, France. References: Online Picasso Project, about.com, top-biography.com, artchive.com. |
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