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Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)

Pablo Picasso was undoubtedly the dominant figure in twentieth-century art. The quantity and quality of his work — paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and ceramics — is unparalleled. His highly original imagination would create new styles which were to significantly influence his peers and generations of later artists.

Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain. His father, a painter and Picasso's first teacher, early recognized his son's prodigious talent. Picasso had his first studio in Barcelona by 1896, and that same year his first oil painting appeared in an exhibition. He made his first trip to Paris in 1900 and moved to France permanently in 1904.

Between 1901-1904, he painted scenes of poverty, old age, and loneliness using predominantly blue colors. This was his first original style which came to be known as his Blue Period. The Blue Nude, 1902 and The Old Guitarist, 1903-04 are paintings from this period.

Between 1904-1906 he began painting circus themes and his style became lighter, more optimistic, and warmer in color. This became known as his Rose Period.

In 1907, he produced his landmark painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the first Cubist painting. The jagged and sharp edges of the five nude female figures marked a major break with traditional notions of beauty, and their mask-like faces reflected Picasso's interest in African sculpture. Primitive art was to become a major influence in the art of the 1900s, along with the development of Cubism, which Picasso was to pioneer with Georges Braques. He continued working with the Cubist style over many years (Three Musicians, 1921).

By 1912, Picasso was working in sheet metal and wire and then began his collage work, incorporating bits of wallpaper, newsprint, postage stamps, and other materials into his paintings.

In various styles and in varying moods, often influenced by changing world events, he would paint, sculpt, etch, make prints and ceramics, and paint murals. He would often return to familiar themes: circus figures, dancers, bullfights, still-lifes, nude figures (The Dream, 1932). He also designed extensively for the ballet. He painted stunning political works denouncing war, such as the famous masterpiece Guernica (1937) the iconic lithograph, Dove, for the 1949 World Peace Congress.

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