The genius, Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist (1881 – 1973), he was a painter and sculptor. Some consider him the best painter of the 20th century. Picasso is known for creating together with Georges Braque, the artistic movement Cubism. However, the term  “cubism” was not given by these artists, the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles, who saw a painting by Braque commented with disdain, that they looked like small cubes and geometric figures.

Pablo Picasso. (1937) wikiart.org

There are at least 16.000 artworks made by Picasso. But this artist did not only painted artworks in the cubist style. He began painting from a very young age. His father was a teacher at art school, he guided him and introduced him to art. He drew expertly from a very early age and stunned adults about how he worked with academic drawings when he was just 7 years old. He had his first art exhibition at the age of 13.

Picasso, P. Portrait of the artist’s mother. Artistic realism. (1896). http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso/es/coleccion/cuadernos/la-madre-de-picasso/index_es.html

Picasso studied at the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid, but was a critic of it. He lived most of his life in France. When the dictatorship of Francisco Franco began, he fled to France. Although he could, he never wanted to nationalize as a French citizen because he always hoped that Franco’s dictatorship would end and he would  return to Spain. He died before that happened.

Picasso’s artwork

Picasso always created paintings inspired by everything he lived, read, and saw. He admired Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas, therefore, some similarities can be seen in Picasso’s work in his early years in Paris with the work of these two artists. Picasso loved to experiment that he was not afraid to work with different materials. He was one of the pioneers in adding paper to his artworks. For professional artworks at the time, this was considered wrong.

Picasso painted about his life, partners, friends, children, pets, the places where he had been. There was a time when he liked going to the circus, so he painted several pictures in which acrobats and dancers were central characters.

The Young Ladies of Avignon. Cubism. (1907).

Throughout his life, he worked on  female nudes. One of his most famous paintings is The Young Ladies of Avignon from 1907, he is said to have been inspired by classical sculptures and archaic sculptures. In this paint, Picasso gives special treatment to the forms. At the time, nobody liked the painting, his close friends said that it was not a beautiful artwork.

The Guernica

This is  Pablo Picasso’s most famous artwork. This artwork was made in 1937 and is about the bombardment and suffering of the population of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

“Guernica”, Pablo Picasso (1937). Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, España). https://www.aulafacil.com/articulos/cultura-hoy/guernica-pablo-ruiz-picasso-t477

This artwork has many different elements. Let’s focus on the characters’ eyes first. We can see that they are exorbitant, looking to different sides, they are showing the deep pain caused by the bombardment and the suffering. The baby, located in the lower-left corner, has no eyes, and this indicates that he is actually dead. Now, let’s look at the hands of some of the characters, they are different sizes and seem to go in different directions. They transmit strength and they seem to suffer a lot.

Picasso said that the bull represents brutality and darkness. It is well known that Picasso enjoyed bullfighting. It is a symbol that he used in many of his artworks. In this work, you can only see the legs and the head of the bull. His eyes are wild, his face is calm. It seems to be the only character on stage who doesn’t suffer.

Details of Picasso’s life

Picasso was a temperamental and somewhat eccentric artist, but he was undoubtedly a genius. He did not usually sign his paintings, saying that if he did, his paintings could be stolen, or forged.

He used to be said to be selfish, however, there is evidence that there were times when Picasso helped other artists a lot. As with Salvador Dalí,  he presented potential buyers several times and helped him gain attention from others. This belief probably comes from the fact that Picasso did not like to throw anything away, he recycled everything, then used them later in his art. 

Picasso, P. Bull Head. (1942). París. https://www.museopicassomalaga.org/obras-seleccionadas/cabeza-de-toro

His work ¨Bull Head¨, created from a recycled bicycle (again thematic of the bulls) is well known.

Picasso was also a writer. However, only very few close friends read his writings. Picasso was very reserved with this part of his life. Pablo Picasso said that not everything he created was good. He was always aware that some of the artworks he created could not provide sufficient quality. He was especially critical of his sculptures, a lot of what he  didn’t seem nice to him.

I hope this article has made you curious to continue learning more about this great and complex artist of the 20th century.

Sources:

Wikipedia. (2021, April 28). Pablo Picasso.https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

Antonio García Villarán. (2018, May 31). VIDA, OBRA Y ANÉCDOTAS DE PICASSO. MI VISIÓN PERSONAL. [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYMKvJmHakY&t=148s

Pablo Picasso, obras de arte, TodoCuadros. (n.d.). https://www.todocuadros.com.ar/pintores-famosos/picasso/

Santos, M. C. (2016, September 27). Pablo Picasso. https://historia-arte.com/artistas/pablo-picasso