Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga as Pablo (full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz).
At the age of twelve, he began painting under the guidance of his father, an art professor. Initially, he signed his paintings with the name Pablo Ruiz, later changing to Pablo Picasso, which was his mother's maiden name, and he began winning medals for his paintings in Madrid and Málaga as early as 1897.
Picasso attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, but he left shortly after because he was dissatisfied with the teaching methods there. In 1901, Picasso began his "Blue Period" and had his first exhibition in Paris. Three years later, he moved to the French capital, where he met, among others, the writer Apollinaire, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship; in Paris, Picasso's "Blue Period" was succeeded by the "Rose Period."
In 1907, the artist met Georges Braque and began creating innovative paintings that exhibited cubist features. The first painting Picasso created in this style was "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." In the following years, he worked closely with Braque and Derain; numerous exhibitions took place in Europe and the USA, and Picasso developed "synthetic cubism," working with large, flat, symbolic forms. In 1925, he participated in the first group exhibition of surrealist painters in Paris, but he did not maintain this connection further.
During the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Picasso supported the Republicans against Franco and was later appointed director of the Prado in Madrid out of gratitude. After spending the years of World War II in Paris, he mostly stayed in Vallauris from 1948 and died on April 8, 1973, in his villa in Mougins near Cannes.
Throughout his long life, Picasso underwent an extraordinary transformation of artistic epochs and significantly shaped them. He became the epitome of the "modern artist," and his works, alongside those of van Gogh, are among the most valuable and popular.
© MYARTPRINTS.COM
