Pablo Picasso

Bio

Perhaps the best-known and most influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso is a legend whose name has become synonymous with avant-garde artistry and sheer creative genius. Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, on October 25, 1881. His father, an art school instructor who immediately recognized his son's talent, encouraged Picasso to study at LoLoja's School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and Later at the San Fernado Academy in Madrid. Bored wit the restraints of academics, he dropped out and pursued his own course of artistic development, studying the works of Guy, van Gogh, Cezanne and others. At 18, he put together his first solo exhibition. In October 1900, Picasso moved to Paris, where dealers soon expressed interest in his work, and he was able, for the first time, to earn a living from selling his pieces.

Picasso continually reinvented his art, adopting and pioneering new styles and techniques throughout his lifetime. Perhaps the most famous phase in his career began around 1908, when he and Georges Braque revolutionized the art world by creating a movement known as Cubism. The goal of Cubism was to show objects not as they appear in a particular time of place, but rather as they are perceived and understood by the intellect. The artist' responsibility was no longer simply to copy nature or mirror reality, but instead to create a new reality. Cubist works created new relationships between artist and viewer, forcing the viewer to take an active role in creating the picture by picking out imagery and assembling it like pieces of a puzzle.

Picasso continued to create prolifically throughout his long life, working simultaneously in various styles of expression as well as various media. Although best known for his paintings, Picasso also worked extensively in sculpture, ceramics, etching, and lithography. For him, art was closely related to life, and he often referred to his work as a form of diary. Consequently, much of his art is heavily influenced by the man he was- his Spanish heritage, his infamous relationships with women, and his passionate and rebellious approach to the world around him. Picasso died on April 7, 1973 at the age of ninety-one.