Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain and he is probably the most famous as the founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism. However he produced a wide and varied body of work, the best-known being the Blue Period works which feature moving depictions of acrobats, harlequins, prostitutes, beggars and artists.
While Picasso was more a painter, as he believed that an artist must paint in order to be considered a true artist, he also worked with small ceramic and bronze sculptures, collage and even produced some poetry. “Je suis aussi un poete,” as he quipped to his friends.
Picasso hated to be alone when he wasn’t working. In Paris, in addition to having a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse Quarters, including Andre Breton, Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Gertrude Stein and others, he usually maintained a number of mistresses in addition to his wife or primary partner.
Picasso’s most famous work is probably his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica, Spain. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. The painting of the picture was captured in a series of photographs by Picasso’s most famous lover, Dora Maar, a distinguished artist in her own right. A Nazi officer is supposed to have come to his door brandishing a postcard and demanding, “Did you do this?” “No,” Picasso is supposed to have replied, “you did.” The Guernica hung in New York’s Museum of Modern Art for many years, and is now in Madrid – Picasso stipulated that the painting should not return to Spain until democracy was restored in that country.
As certain works, for example the Cubist pieces, tend to be associated in the public mind with Picasso, it is important to realize how talented Picasso was as a painter and draughtsman. He was capable of working with oils, watercolours, pastels, charcoal, pencil, ink, or indeed any medium with equally high facility. With his most extreme cubist works he came close to deconstructing a complex scene into just a few geometric shapes while at the same time being capable of photo-realistic pen and ink sketches of his friends. Picasso had a massive talent for almost any artistic endeavor he turned his mind to, despite limited formal academic training (he finished only one year of his course of study at the Royal Academy in Madrid), and a ferocious work-ethic.
