Pablo Diego Picasso
Famous Painter, Draughtsman and Lover
Pablo Diego Picasso, born 25 October 1881, became the most famous painter and draughtsman of the twentieth century. He was renowned for his co-founding of the Cubist movement and for a variety of styles he created. Pablo was also known for his vibrant personality and attraction to women. The three characteristics that best described Pablo Picasso were: his famous paintings, his sculptures and his love affairs.
Picasso’s Famous Paintings
All of Picasso’s paintings were classified into various periods. These periods were characterized by a unique style that reflected the painter’s emotional state, personal and love life.
The period from 1901 to 1904 was classified as Picasso’s Blue Period because; in this time he used various shades of blue and blue-green in his paintings. His paintings of this period depicted the hardships of the life of prostitutes, beggars, and blind people. Some of Picasso’s most famous paintings in this time were ‘La Vie’, ‘The Blindman’s Meal’, ‘Celestina’ and an etching called ‘Frugal Repast’. All of these paintings reflect his somber attitude, which was in turn reflected by the tragic death of his close friend, Casagemas.
The paintings that Picasso is most celebrated for is his analytic cube-style paintings. Picasso and Georges Braque developed this style of painting and their paintings were characterized by the use of monochrome brown colors. Picasso took objects apart and analyzed them in his paintings. This period was known as Picasso’s Analytic Cubism Period. However, his paintings were also inspired by his interest in African artifacts and featured the women he was involved with. His most famous paintings of this time were ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ and the spectacular ‘Guernica’ which was done in Madrid. Picasso’s new experiments inspired a number of painters to explore the possibility of cubism throughout the twentieth women. The cubist movement came to evolve into contemporary art, a style that is commonly known and used by artists around the world.
Picasso’s Famous Sculptures
Picasso was also renowned for his sculptures, however, not nearly as much as he was for his paintings. In fact, Picasso was quite secretive about his sculptures. He did not release his sculptures to the public until the 1960s. His most famous sculpture is the ‘Chicago Picasso’, a fifty-foot tribute to the Daley Center that was created in a cubist, three-dimensional style. This sculpture spawned on Chicago’s fascination with contemporary art.
Other notable sculptures made by Picasso were the ‘La Petite Chouette’, ‘Mandolin and Clarinet’, and the ‘Glass of Absinthe’.
Picasso’s Love Affairs
Outside of his career as artist, Picasso had a very vibrant love life. His love life always drew the attention of all his fans. In 1904, he fell in love with Fernande Olivier, who was his mistress for seven years. Picasso then left her for Marcelle Humbert, who he featured in a number of his Cubist paintings. In 1918, Picasso married Olga Khokholva, a Russian ballerina and they had one son. Her desire for wealth and stardom clashed with Picasso’s Bohemian lifestyle and the two eventually separated. Pablo then engaged in a number of sexual affairs with several other women and even had three more daughters with two separate women.
“Pablo Diego Picasso died on the 8th of April, 1973 while he and his wife Jacqueline were entertaining friends for dinner,” says Madhavi Ghare. His last words, according to Ghare, were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.” Picasso was the age of 92 when he passed away. Almost forty years later, his art continues to be well recognized in many cities across Europe and the United States.
Sources
Ghare, Michael. ‘Pablo Picasso Biography’ (April 2007, accessed 27 April 2009).
Moffat, Charles. ‘Pablo Picasso: The Most Famous Artist of the Twentieth Century’
(accessed 27 April 2009).
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