Pablo Picasso in Life and Art: A Biography

At the beginning of 1907, Picasso began a painting, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" ("The Young Women of Avignon") that would become arguably the most important of the century. In some of the preliminary sketches there was a man with a skull, probably a medical student, maybe inspecting a prostitute for syphilis. His use of color Muted palette, influenced by Cezanne and his Blue and Rose .The painting began as a narrative brothel scene, with five

Pablo Picasso arrived in Paris in the year 1900 at the age of just 19, and within a few years he became a well-known artist and a dominating figure in the world of modern art movement. The one piece of art that he produced in 1906 through 1907 was the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and would change the word of art forever. This became the piece art that helped launch Cubism and a whole new artistic expression. Because of this art and many other, Pablo Picasso has become one of the most important figure of 20th century, in terms of art, and art movements that occurred over this period. This Spanish born artist had a distinct style and eye for artistic creation. There had been no other artists, prior to Picasso, who had such an impact on the art world. Although his art career spanned over a 7 decade period, Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso endured much poverty and hardships in his life. He knew what it was like to be at the bottom of societies standards. He dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue a better art education. Picasso and one of his close friends moved to Paris looking better art opportunities. Picasso’s friend later that year committed suicide. These experiences led him to paint the blue period where many dark and depressing painting were created by him. The paintings during the blue period were exact reflections of the poverty, pain, and loss in Picasso’s life. One of the most famous paintings to come from his blue period is, The Old Guitarist. Picasso created this painting in Madrid in 1903.

Vincent van Gogh was one of many artists who self taught himself, who transformed the appearance of Post-Impressionism incessantly. His main focuses were his paintings, which he mostly painted in oil mediums. In his time, he has produced lot of paintings, most of which were of cityscapes, figure and landscape scenery. Unlike Pablo

The years of 1901 to 1904 were known as the "blue period" because of the blue tonality of Picasso's paintings. During this period, he would spend his days in Paris studying the masterworks at the Louvre and his nights enjoying the company of fellow artists at cabarets. 1905 and 1906 marked a radical change in color and mood for Picasso. He became fascinated with the acrobats, clowns and wandering families of the circus world. He started to paint in subtle pinks and greys, often highlighted with brighter tones. This was known as his "rose period." In 1907, Picasso painted "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," considered the watershed picture of the twentieth century, and met Georges Braque, the other leading artist of the Cubist movement. Cubism was equally the creation of Picasso and Braque and from 1911 to 1913, the two men were in frequent contact.

In 1905 after his blue period, Picasso's subject matter and color schemes that he used for his paintings began to change. From 1905-1906, Picasso developed the "Rose Period." Now instead of painting depressing figures with blue dull color tones, he began to paint circus people acrobats, and harlequin figures using pink and other earth tone colors (Gerten, n.d.). The rumor for this period is that Picasso began to brighten his colors and themes after he fell in love. A famous piece from his Rose period is called "Boy with Pipe." The painting features a young boy holding a pipe with a flower

Pablo Picasso was one of the brightest artist for his time and he has been credited with influencing many of the different directions that art went in the twentieth century. Picasso was said to influence styles of art like surrealism and co-invent cubism and not unlike artists before him, he drew inspiration from the great people of the time such as Freud or artists like Cézanne. Picasso was unique in the fact that his paintings represented what he wanted them to represent and through the freedom of interpretation, Picasso was able to influence those who saw his works. Picasso was such a different painter in his time because instead of focusing on the details and trying to make things perfectly realistic, he painted with a sort of freedom

Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon is considered by many to be a revolutionary breakthrough in the history of modern art. Demoiselles is a “great manifesto of modernist painting” as Picasso had abandoned all known form of traditional art, a radical break from the Western tradition that very much led to the Cubism movement (Bishop, 2002). What made Demoiselles revolutionary was that "in it Picasso broke away from the two central characteristics of European painting since the Renaissance: the classical norm for the human figure, and the spatial illusionism of one-point perspective" (Fry, 1966). Cubism had “destroyed […] the realist conventions for three-dimensional perspective which had been dominant in art since the Renaissance” (Butler, 2010). While generally credited as the first Cubist painting, art historians such as John Golding have argued that it was only a “starting point for the history of Cubism” (1958). Indeed, the picture predicates key characteristics of Cubism like the distortion and break down of objects and figures into distinct shapes, rather than being itself a Cubist painting. This analysis will concentrate on the elements of Cubism in Demoiselles and how it led to the movement.

Shortly before 500 B.C. a great philosopher named Heraclitus was at his peak. He used the style of epigram to explain the human condition meaning in short that reality is opposition or strife and flux. (Melchert) The opposition being what keeps the flux (constant change) in its boundaries, such as a river in its banks. You can see this opposition and flux represented in Picasso’s works defined in his ever changing style and subject matter. During his lifetime Picasso “moved interchangeably between different styles sometimes even in the same artwork.” (The Art Story) Picasso is quoted stating that "Different themes inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply either evolution or progress; it is a matter of following the idea one wants to express and the way in which one

While many artists focus on one form of art throughout their career, Picasso created distinct forms of art. This is why Picasso is a well known and highly respected. Picasso

Pablo’s personal style was a combination of several techniques and styles that he had previously drawn influences from. For instance, it introduced bright and pure colors with one of the major subjects being scenes of nightlife in Paris and an image of Manach Pere, one of the greatest promoters of Pablo’s work at

From the time periods of late1904 to early 1906, Pablo Picasso, one of the most renowned oil painters in history, explored the theme of Saltimbanques upon his canvas medium during his famous Rose Period. Previously, Picasso suffered from depression, which resulted in the era known as the Blue Period, but in 1904, Picasso met Fernande Olivier, who some speculate was the transition from his Blue Period to Rose Period. During the Rose Period, Picasso’s used of warm color oil paints, primarily pink, highlighted the artistic style of Saltimbanques as he depicted circus performers, harlequins, and acrobats that he observed when living in France. For much of his artwork, “Picasso’s eye would also require the stimulus of a visual experience,” and for him, the idea of being visually stimulated by circuses, caught his attention. In order to gather inspiration, Picasso would frequently visit the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre so that both his mind and eyes could be visually stimulated. As his infatuation with Saltimbanques increased, he dedicated a series to them and in 1905, he created his most famous painting of the Rose Period “Family of Saltimbanques.” This painting, standing at 7x8 ft, was considered to be the biggest painting ever produced by Picasso. Using these influences, Picasso was able to create his most impressive works of the Rose Period, “Family of Saltimbanques.”

Well-known artist Pablo Picasso creates a portrait of Dora Maar. This portrait appears to be a mug shot. The structure, placement, and organization all appear to be carefully considered thus producing a respectful portrait. Picasso fills the landscape by centering and enlarging the head of Dora Maar leaving minimal space unoccupied. A sequential pattern can be detected upon observing Maar’s pearls and shirt. Picasso draws attention and focuses on facial features through color selection and shadowing. The primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) are predominantly used while the secondary colors (green, purple, and orange) are used to shade and accent different facial features around the eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and hair in order to create detail.

This change in Picasso’s work became known as his " Rose Period" as stated by ( ).

His artistic inclination brought him to Europe, Rivera drew upon the artform of cubism, created a few years earlier by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Highlighted by brighter colors which showed his aim for brighter life and a larger scale than many early cubist pictures, painting on highly textured surfaces executed in a plethora of techniques which was the way he become famous for.