Spanish

Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking, Ceramics

Jose Ruíz (father), Academy of Arts, Madrid

Cubism

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
Guernica (1937) The Weeping Woman (1937)

.^[1] One of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of cubism.

Biography

, 1901,

his first word was "piz," a shortening of lápiz , the Spanish word for pencil.^[4] ) in Madrid, leaving after less than a year.

, while before he signed Pablo Ruiz y Picasso .

Pablo Picasso, Nature morte à la chaise cannée ,1912

from the Louvre in 1911. Apollonaire pointed to his friend Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated.^[5]

. Picasso always played himself in his film appearances. In 1955 he helped make the film Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

He was interred at Castle Vauvenargues' park, in Vauvenargues, Bouches-du-Rhône. Jacqueline Roque prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral.^[7]

Politics ] ]

In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended an international peace conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.^[8] ]

]

Work

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919).

Before 1901 During 1893 the juvenile quality of his earliest work falls away; by 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun.^[11] The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed inThe First Communion

Blue Period

Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist , (1902)

For more details on this topic, see Picasso's Blue Period.

Picasso's Blue Period (1901–1904) consists of somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colours. This period's starting point is uncertain; it may have begun in Spain in the spring of 1901, or in Paris in the second half of the year.^[14] , painted in 1903 and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.^[15]

Pablo Picasso, Les Noces de Pierrette , 1905

The same mood pervades the well-known etching The Frugal Repast Rose Period

For more details on this topic, see Picasso's Rose Period.

African-influenced Period

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

For more details on this topic, see Picasso's African Period.

Analytic cubism

For more details on this topic, see Analytic cubism.

Analytic cubism (1909–1912) is a style of painting Picasso developed along with Braque using monochrome brownish colours. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time are very similar to each other.

Synthetic cubism

For more details on this topic, see Synthetic cubism.

Synthetic cubism (1912–1919) is a further development of Cubism in which cut paper fragments—often wallpaper or portions of newspaper pages—are pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art.

Classicism and surrealism

Pablo Picasso, Guernica , 1937

.^{[citation needed ]}

Arguably Picasso's most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War — Guernica . This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war.^{[citation needed ]}

Guernica hung in New York's Museum of Modern Art for many years. In 1981 Guernica . In 1992 the painting hung in Madrid's Reina Sofía Museum when it opened.

Later works

Picasso was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. In the 1950s Picasso's style changed once again, as he took to producing reinterpretations of the art of the great masters. He made a series of works based on Velazquez's painting of Las Meninas. He also based paintings on works of art by Goya, Poussin, Manet, Courbet and Delacroix.

Picasso sculpture in Chicago.

He was commissioned to make a maquette for a huge 50 foot high public sculpture to be built in Chicago, known usually as the Chicago Picasso ]

Legacy

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The Museu Picasso in Barcelona features many of Picasso's early works, created while he was living in Spain, including many rarely seen works which reveal Picasso's firm grounding in classical techniques. The museum also holds many precise and detailed figure studies done in his youth under his father's tutelage, as well as the extensive collection of Jaime Sabartés, Picasso's close friend from his Barcelona days who, for many years, was Picasso's personal secretary.

The film Surviving Picasso

Some paintings by Picasso rank among the most expensive paintings in the world.

· Les Noces de Pierrette - sold for more than USD $51 million in 1999.

· Garçon à la pipe - sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's on May 4, 2004, establishing a new price record.

· Dora Maar au Chat - sold for USD $95.2 million at Sotheby's on May 3, 2006.^[17]