When a child loves to draw and once again painstakingly creates scrawls, parents often say: Maybe the second Picasso will grow of him?! The name of Pablo Picasso is included in our daily vocabulary, meaning the master of fine arts and having become popular all over the world.
How did he deserve this recognition?
His creative work was special, his paintings are recognizable due to the peculiar style that he, together with Georges Braque Picasso and Juan Gris, found in the 20th century. This style is called Cubism. Picasso was very fruitful, the artist created more than 20 000 works in his entire life! Moreover, to date, his works are very highly evaluated and experts on art called Pablo the most «expensive» artist.
For information, his picture «Nude, Green Leaves And Bust» was sold at auction for more than 106 million US dollars. It is interesting that his paintings occupy the first place regarding stealing.
Picasso was a true born artist — he always drew and created sculptures, not doing anything else in life. He was led by feelings, his pictures were always a reflection of the inner world: anxiety was transmitted in dark colors, and joy was poured out in bright colors.
If you look at the work of Picasso, you can imagine what the essence of Cubism is — use of geometric figures, with which the artist «put his paintings into pieces», he made forms voluminous with the help of polygonal planes. When one looks at the pictures of Cubism, he/she reflects on how human imagination is able to perceive reality in such different manifestations.
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. The first steps in drawing Pablo made thanks to his father, who taught this subject in educational institutions. The fact that the boy would become an artist was understood since the early years, when Pablo helped his father to finish painting canvases. He continued his art education in art schools, and in 1897 he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Arts «San Fernando». During his studies he managed to organize his first exhibition. Pablo was unable to lead to the end his studies due to his freedom-loving nature. Moreover, he became friends with the same obstinate American student Carles Casagemas and together they often visited Paris.
They were interested in the works of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse Lautrec, at the exhibitions they got acquainted with the representatives of the French bohemia and wealthy collectors.
Pablo continued to paint pictures and as a pseudonym chose the mother's maiden name — Picasso.
In 1901, his friend Carlos committed a suicide because of unhappy love. This event affected the artist emotionally very much. At that time, cold color shades prevailed in his paintings, so the first period of Picasso's creativity was called the «Blue Period». Pale gray colors were also explained by the fact that the young man did not have the means to buy paint and materials for work. At that time his art was permeated with a mood of fear, despondency and anguish.
The «blue» was followed by the «pink» period, which started after the artist moved to Paris, despite financial difficulties. In this cycle, many paintings were written from people working in the Medrano circus, which was located near Montmartre. The most famous canvas of this period is «Acrobat On A Ball». The painting was bought by a Russian patron, I.A. Morozov, brought to Russia and exhibited in the Pushkin Museum, where it is still today.
Gradually in the works of Picasso geometric forms appeared, and when he painted his admirer and patron of art Gertrude Stein, he did it in a new style. Another picture of «Avignon Ladies» was met with criticism, but Picasso did not stop and continued to work in a new direction. And not in vain! Soon his pictures became popular among more and more people, the paintings were sold one by one and success finally found him.
It is worth mentioning that Picasso was fond of women and was constantly in love with someone, his creative nature needed muses, so he coul not stay with one lady at a time.
With his first wife Olga Khokhlova, who was a Russian dancer, Pablo met when, at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev, he moved to Rome to work on sketches of theater sets and costumes. The romantic and bright period of his life changed the direction of Cubism to more classical realism. «Bathers», «Portrait of Olga In The Chair» — that's what came out from under the brush of the artist at the time.
«Portrait Of Olga In The Chair»
Picasso was rich and famous, and craving for bohemian life ruined his relationship with Olga. He was burdened by family life, he again wanted freedom. Even his common son could not save the family. His mood displayed on the canvases started to be surrealistic: the picture «Dance» marked the beginning of the surreal direction. From this moment Picasso conveyed a feeling of soreness, dissatisfaction and even misogyny («Mirror», «Girl In Front Of A Mirror»).
During the war, Picasso stayed in occupied Paris and continued to create art — a symbol of war appeared in the form of a bull of the Minotaur with large, indifferent eyes. And only after the war the palette of the artist acquired more vivid colors. In his works elements of ancient Greek mythology appeared. A significant role in the change of Pablo’s mood was played by Francoise Gilot, who gave birth of two children to the artist. But because of constant betrayals, Francoise broke up with Pablo.
However, Picasso was not very upset and married for the second time at the age of 80 a simple saleswoman Jacqueline Rose. She idolized her husband and had a great influence on Pablo. After his death, Jacqueline could not live through the loss and committed suicide.
Pablo Picasso died in 1973 (at 92 years old) from pneumonia.
There are three museums of Picasso: in Barcelona, which was opened when Pablo was alive, and two more museums were in Paris and Malaga (hometown) after the artist’s death. Also, the company Citroen named several of car models in honor of the artist.
Picasso is also known for his quotes and wise phrase. So I would like to end my post with some of them:
I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned!