Born on the 25th of October 1881 in Malaga, Spain, the man who would change the face of art in the 20th century was christened with no few than seven names. Unsurprisingly Pablo Diego Jose Francisco De Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria Delos Remedios Cipriano De la Santisima Trinidad Cleto Ruiz Y Picasso is generally referred to simply as Picasso.
For the father who worked as a painter and art school professor. Picasso displayed his artistic talents early on. He studied at various art schools learning figure drawing and oil painting but never finished the college level study he under took at the Academy of Art staying there less than a year.
In 1900, Picasso arrived in Paris living with the writer Max Jacob. He was so poor and he was literally burning his work to keep warm but the following year in Madrid, he co-founded an art magazine illustrating the first entire edition himself. Picasso began to build a reputation, help in great part by such friends and benefactors as Gertrude Stein who bought many of his works. One of the things that distinguish Picasso was his refusal to stagnate or sit on his laurels.
His remarkable life force and powerful personality influenced all areas of his life both personally and professionally. At the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, there are examples of his childhood sketches including a picture of a bull fight that he drew in frontispiece of one his father’s books. The adult Picasso also had a keen interest in bull fighting and created many art works on the theme. In a post-World War I period, Picasso tended towards the neo-classical style with the miniature becoming a regular motor finish work.
The potent sexuality of his mythical half bull, half man creature is often thought would come from his contact with the surrealist who often used it. But it is also likely that it is symbolic of the way Picasso saw himself in society and certainly in his relationships with the many women in his life.
Throughout his life Picasso conducted many love affairs with women. Often became the subjects of his pictures. He married twice but also had relationships with the number of different mistresses and eventually fathered four children by three women. One of his most well known partners was the photographer and painter Dora Mar to whom he was especially close in the 1930’s and 40’s.
The 1930’s also saw the creation of perhaps Picasso’s most famous painting. He had refused to fight the fascist during the Spanish civil war claiming he was a pacifist though he did expresses his opposition in his work.
In 1937, he painted Guernica inspired by the German bombing of the Spanish city during that war. The vast canvas is justly lowered for its depiction of the senselessness and inhumanity of war. But Picasso refused to explain the symbolism he used saying the public who looked at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.
Picasso died on the 8th of April 1973 in France while hosting a dinner party. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.” Today his legacy and influence are as all encompassing as ever and with price tags like $104,000,000 for “Garcon a la pipe” many of his artworks are amongst the expensive in the world.
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