Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973)

The son of an art professor, Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. At 14, he entered the Barcelona Academy of Fine Arts. Picasso went through lots of styles, including what is now called his "Blue Period" (1901-04) where he used mostly shades of blue. He also started sculpting. In 1904 his palette lightened up as he added shades of pink, rose, beige and a lighter blue. Much of his work during this period focused on circus people. Picasso was influenced by Matisse and by Henri Rousseau whose paintings of the jungle and wild animals reminded people of ancient Egyptian art. The other artist who influenced him was the painter Paul Gauguin who lived in Tahiti and painted pictures of life there. Other sources of inspiration included ancient art of Spain and Africa. In 1907 Picasso painted a picture called Les Demoiselles of Avignon (The Young Girls of Avignon) but didn't show it to very many people until 1916 because it was such a departure from the current style. This major work of Cubism set the tone for a new way of looking at the world through geometry. When Picasso drew a human figure, he didn't use perspective but rather showed parts of the body as they might be seen from different angles. The strange shapes and distortions shocked critics but by 1914, many artists in Paris and New York had embraced it. When the Spanish Civil War began, Picasso became the director of The Prado, Spain's national art gallery. After, he was commissioned to paint a mural for the World Exposition in Paris. His horror at the destruction caused by war was reflected in Guernica, a huge painting that measures 25 feet wide by 11 feet high. He insisted that it stay in the United States until democracy was restored in Spain, and finally the mural came home in 1981. Later in his life Picasso branched out to do sculpture, pottery, printmaking, set and costume designs for ballet and theatre, and even poetry. He used watercolors, oil paints, pastels, charcoal, pencil and ink. "I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else," he said. He did a huge sculpture for the city of Chicago for which he refused payment, choosing instead to donate it to the people. He believed that as long as he kept working, he would stay alive. In his lifetime, he created 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints, 34,000 book illustrations, 300 sculptures or ceramics, and a variety of other art including tapestries - and he lived to be 92!