P = Pablo Picasso, Art Legend - A to Z Challenge

ART: Artists, Art Trivia, Art Legends

A glimpse of the ART world, in the manner of an alphabetical mini-art tour. ART focuses on artists and art movements between the 1850's-1960's. There are exceptions.





Pablo Picasso 1962, via Wikipedia Commons (PD)

P = Pablo Picasso
1881 – 1973


As one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso is known as a co-founder of the Cubist movement, and the invention of constructed sculpture.

His career as a painter started in 1894. At the age of 14, he painted Portrait of Aunt Pepa, a portrait that is considered 'one of the greatest in the history of Spanish painting'. The influence of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch led Pablo to form his own personal version of Modernism.

Picasso's most famous work is Guernica, his depiction of the bombing during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PicassoGuernica.jpg  Guernica, scroll to bottom end of Wikipedia page.

Portrait of Igor Stravinsky, c. 1920
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stravinsky_picasso.png - also at the bottom of the wiki page


Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. 

Pablo died on April 8,1973 in Mougins, France. At the time of his death many of his paintings were in his possession. These works form the core of an immense collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris. (The Musée Picasso was closed for renovations when we located it in 2010 Paris.)
 
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Are you a fan of Picasso's art? (early periods, cubism or sculpture)  Do you prefer some of his earlier 'realistic' paintings to the analytical cubism?

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Brought to you by the A to Z Blog Challenge 2014 Team and the originator: Lee of Tossing it Out. Click the A to Z list of participants and read on.

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References:
 
A Picasso Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso 


Picasso - previous post in 2012 A to Z, Pablo's early time in Paris

http://dghudson-rainwriting.blogspot.ca/2012/04/p-pablo-picasso-in-paris-to-z-challenge.html


Pablo Picasso's works will not enter the public domain in France, Spain and other European countries until 2043.

Image of Picasso, 1962 -PD-WC

This image is in the public domain because the copyright of this photograph, registered in Argentina, has expired. (Both at least 25 years have passed after the photograph was created, and it was first published at least 20 years ago, Law 11.723, Article 34 as amended, and Berne Convention Article 7 (4)).

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P = Pablo Picasso in Paris - A to Z Challenge

A Spanish artist came to town. . .

Pablo Picasso 1962, via Wikipedia Commons (PD)

Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter of Guernica, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer.  His complete name is 'Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso'.  Thankfully, he used the short form.  Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. 


Best Known Works:


Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

Guernica (1937)

The Weeping Woman (1937)


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Picasso made his first trip to Paris in 1900, when it was the art capital of Europe. He met his Parisian friend, the journalist and poet Max Jacob soon after arriving.  Soon they shared an apartment in Montmartre; Max slept at night while Picasso slept during the day and worked at night.  These were times of poverty, cold and desperation. Much of Pablo's early work was burned to keep the small room warm.



While in Paris, Picasso became part of an artistic group of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters, including André Breton, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Alfred Jarry, and Gertrude Stein.   By 1905, Picasso had become a favourite of the American art collectors, Gertrude and Leo Stein.  Gertrude eventually became Picasso's principal patron, acquiring and exhibiting his work in her informal Salon at her home in Paris.  At one of these gatherings in 1905, he was introduced to Henri Matisse who became his lifelong friend and rival.



Le Bateau-Lavoir

Le Bateau Lavoir, Picasso lived and painted here - by DG Hudson

Pablo Picasso took up residence in the Le Bateau Lavoir between 1900 and 1904.  He had moved away by 1911, and most of the other artists followed as war loomed in 1914.  It was in this milieu that Picasso first discussed Cubism. While in the Bateau-Lavoir he painted one of his most noted works, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.


Women were attracted to Pablo's brooding and bohemian ways in his younger days and throughout his life. The photographer and painter Dora Maar was a lover and constant companion of Picasso. The two were closest in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and it was Maar who documented the painting of Guernica. 


Throughout his life Picasso maintained a number of mistresses in addition to his wife or primary partner.  As a result, his marriages were marked by strife and two of his ladies killed themselves after his death.  Picasso was married twice and had four children by three women.

Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, France.  Jacqueline Roque, his third wife, prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral.  Devastated after Picasso's death, she took her own life in 1986; she was 59 years old.  Four children survived. 

Picasso was another of those interesting personalities that gravitated to Paris at the same time.  A passionate man who pursued his vision.  He lived life the same way.

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My favourite Picasso?  Guernica

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Are you a fan of Picasso's art? Any favourite works, sculptures by Pablo?  Please share in the comments.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Bateau-Lavoir  - Artists at Bateau Lavoir

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso  - Pablo Picasso

http://www.pablopicasso.org/ - Artworks, quotes and biography

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