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.

Introduction

Picasso is most famous as the co-founder of Cubism. However, in a long life he produced a wide and varied body of work, the best-known being the Blue Period works which feature moving depictions of acrobats, harlequins, prostitutes, beggars and artists.

Related Topics:
Cubism - Blue Period - Harlequins

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While Picasso was primarily a painter (in fact he believed that an artist must paint in order to be considered a true artist), he also worked with small ceramic and bronze sculptures, collage and even wrote some poetry. "Je suis aussi un poète," as he quipped to his friends.

Related Topics:
Painter - Sculpture - Poetry

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Picasso was the most prolific painter ever, as deemed in the Guiness Book of Records. He produced about 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics plus drawings and tapestries. The total value of his work was estimated in 1973 to be about $750 million.

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Arguably Picasso's most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica, Spain ? Guernica. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. The act of painting it was captured in a series of photographs by Picasso's most famous lover, Dora Maar, a distinguished artist in her own right. Guernica hung in New York's Museum of Modern Art for many years; Picasso stipulated that the painting should not return to Spain until democracy was restored in that country. In 1981 Guernica was returned to Spain and exhibited at the Casón del Buen Retiro. In 1992 the painting became one of the main attractions in Madrid's Reina Sofía Museum when it opened.

Related Topics:
German - Bombing of Guernica - Spain - ''Guernica'' - War - Dora Maar - Museum of Modern Art - Democracy - Casón del Buen Retiro - Reina Sofía Museum

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Picasso was extremely talented as a painter and draughtsman, even by the standards of the world's great artists. He worked with equal facility in oil, watercolour, pastels, charcoal, pencil, and ink. He famously rendered complex scenes as just a few geometric shapes in his mixed-media Cubist works, but he also produced masterful realist portraits throughout his life. His pen and ink sketches of his friends from the Cubist era and afterwards are valued for their understated intimacy, examples of the fluidity of his skills. Indeed, Picasso moved with ease among the plastic arts despite limited academic training (he finished only one year at the Royal Academy in Madrid). His natural talents were augmented by a ferocious work ethic that survived into the final years of his long life.

Related Topics:
Oil - Watercolour - Pastel - Charcoal - Pencil - Ink

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