Spotlight: Simply Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 - April 8, 1973) was a Spanish born painter and sculptor. Born in Malaga, Spain, he was a child prodigy…his talent was recognized and encouraged by his father, Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco, from a very early age. Picasso was so preoccupied with art that it was often to the detriment of his schoolwork.
In 1891, the family moved to La Coruña so that Ruiz could become a professor at the School of Arts. It was during their stay here that he took notice of the precision of Picasso’s technique, and felt that Picasso had surpassed him in talent, and vowed to give up painting. Four years later, tragedy struck the family when Picasso’s sister died of diptheria. The family then moved to Barcelona and Ruiz persuaded the School of Arts to allow Picasso to allow his son to take the entrance exam for the advanced class. The process normally took a month for students to complete; however, Picasso completed it in a week, and the impressed jury admitted Picasso, who was 13 at the time.
Picasso travelled to Paris in 1900, where he met the poet Max Jacob, who became his friend and roommate. These were hard times, and much of the work he had completed had to be burned for heat for the small room he and Max shared. In 1901, Picasso and his friend Francisco de Asís Soler founded the magazine Arte Joven (Young Art), which published all of five issues. From that day he stopped using his full name and simply began using “Picasso” to sign his works. These first years of the century correspond to the painter’s Blue Period. The Blue Period is full of paintings of despondent figures—musicians, beggars, prostitutes, artists, blind men—all inspired by the struggles in Picasso’s own life.
The Blue Period is immediately followed by the Rose Period, which is followed by the African Period. Picasso is probably best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, which followed the African Period.
Picasso met and married his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, in 1918. They had a son, Paulo, the following year. Although Picasso began a clandestine affair with Marie-Therese Walter in 1927, he never divorced his wife, because he didn’t want her to have half his wealth. His wife did discover the affair when Walter became pregnant with daughter Maia and the Picassos remained separated until Olga’s death in 1955. Picasso fathered two other children—Claude and Paloma—with Françoise Gilot. Picasso did remarry in 1961, but not to Ms. Walter…he married Jacqueline Roque, subject of one of his more famous later paintings, Jacqueline.
Picasso worked well into his upper years, continuing to work until his death. His last words: “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.”
There is a world of more information to discover about Picasso. Skip over to Simply Picasso to read more about this very interesting painting genius…don’t forget to take the quiz and, if you have questions, visit the Forum!
Happy learning!
March 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
What an interesting man and life. I find it fascinating that so many artists of this time period had so much to contribute to the artistic world yet led very troubling personal lives. Maybe a tortured personal life is what I need to make it big on the literary scene! I often wonder what it would be like to have to live in the shadow of a great figure from history such as Picasso if you were his child or spouse.