Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso{{ref|name}}, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Spanish painter, (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art, probably most famous as the founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism.

Early life

Pablo Diego José Santiago Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain, the first child of José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López.

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October 25 - 1881 - Málaga - Spain

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Picasso's father, José Ruiz y Blasco, was himself a painter; for most of his life, a professor of art at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts; and was a curator of a local museum. It was from his father that Picasso learned the basics of formal academic art training – figure drawing, and painting in oil. Although Picasso attended art schools throughout his childhood, often those where his father taught, he never finished his college level course of study at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, leaving after less than a year.

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The Museu Picasso in Barcelona features many of Picasso's early works, created while he was living in Spain, as well as the extensive collection of Jaime Sabartés, Picasso's close friend from his Barcelona days and for many years Picasso's personal secretary. There are many precise and detailed figure studies done in his youth under his father's tutelage, as well as rarely seen works from his old age, that clearly demonstrate Picasso's firm grounding in classical techniques.

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Museu Picasso - Barcelona

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Picasso used a harlequin in many of his early works, especially in his Blue and Rose Periods. A comedic character depicted usually in checkered patterned clothing, the harlequin became a personal symbol of Picasso. During the 1930s, the minotaur replaced the harlequin as a motif which he used often in his work. His use of the minotaur came partly because of contact with the Surrealists who often used it as their symbol. The minotaur appears in Picasso's painting Guernica.

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Harlequin - Minotaur - Surrealists

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