Pablo Picasso

 

 

 

Pablo Picasso was born on the 25 October 1881 and died on the 8 April 1973; he was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he was known for co-founding the Cubist movement.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period from the 1901 to the 1904, the Rose Period from 1904 to the 1906), the African-influenced Period from the 1907 to the 1909, Analytic Cubism from 1909 to the 1912, and Synthetic Cubism from the 1912 to the 1919.

Picasso's African-influenced Period on 1907 to the 1909 begins with the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which were inspired by African artefacts. Formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.

Analytic cubism from 1909 to the 1912 is a style of painting Picasso developed with Georges Braque using monochrome brownish and neutral colours. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time share many similarities. Synthetic cubism from the 1912 to 1919, was a further development of the genre, in which cut paper fragments – often wallpaper or portions of newspaper pages – were pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art.

In Paris, Picasso entertained a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters, including Andre Breton, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Alfred Jarry, and Gertrude Stein. Apollinaire was arrested on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. Apollinaire pointed to his friend Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated.