Quick and Dirty Guide for Pablo Picasso

• Pablo Picasso – born on October 25^th, 1881 in Malaga, Spain
• Originally named Pablo Ruiz, later took on his mother’s name,Picasso
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• Child prodigy, Picasso learned everything about painting and drawing from his Father José Ruiz, who was a painting teacher (Art world refers to his father as the master of pigeons; his father’s art wasn’t that good)
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• At age sixteen, Picasso was accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, Spain
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• Picasso’s time was short lived at the Academy, for he disliked it and left
• In 1900, Picasso landed in Paris; influenced by the nightlife, he created works of women dancing and drinking
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• 1901-1904 Blue Period: Picasso’s dear friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide, forcing Picasso into a depression – Picasso expressed himself through monochromatic blue paintings – some paintings referencing his friend, Carlos, and other paintings were more symbolic.
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• 1904 – 1906 Rose Period: Picasso met Fernande Olivier, his new lover. Helping Picasso out of his depression and awakening his rose period, this pre-cubist style of work featured reoccurring characters such as harlequins, circus performers, and a classical examination of the figure – this period was referred to as the Rose Period, because Picasso used a pastel earth tone palette of pinks, blues, browns, reds (My personal thoughts are that this body of work has a late morning feeling about them – or a rainy spring)
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• 1907 – 1912 African and Cubism – being influenced by African sculptures and masks, and their deconstruction of the human form (which create fractal geometric shapes) was the early influence on Picasso’s cubism – one can see this represented in two acclaimed works: Les Demoiselles D’avignon and Portrait of Gertrude Stein –
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• Picasso’s later influence for cubism came when he met Georges Braque – they would challenge the perception of the eye by reevaluating isolated parts of paintings and reconstructing them in new paintings, which creates different points in time captured in one painting – they would push this to its limits by adding collage, such as paper, wallpaper, and material.
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• 1937-World War II Guernica – April 1937 Guernica was bombed by German and Italian Warplanes, which sent Picasso into a spitting rage – that year Picasso painted his most important painting ever; Guernica – the painting is in black, white and grey (which represents death – also, the way the information was received with was through newspapers) and you can see the newspaper representations by the black vertical dashes that are heavily implemented center left of the painting. Guernica traveled the world to raise awareness about the war and after fifty years, it was finally returned home to Madrid, Spain in 1981 where it has remained to this day
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• Post War Picasso: Picasso took all his innovation and applied it to his craft, allowing him to become prolific at his craft – Picasso went from painting in different styles to working in different mediums, including three dimensional, collaging and print making
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• Picasso passed away on April 8^th, 1973
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• Video Tutorial below of Picasso
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he1dz6pVO0k&feature=youtu.be