Background

• Quick Facts

  • Born in Malaga, Spain

  • Spent most of his professional career in Paris

  • Most associated with Cubism, Surrealism, and Modernism

  • Most Famous Works

    • Guernica (1937)

    • The Old Guitarist (1904)

    • La Vie (1903)

• Trained in classical art, but chooses to create abstract art instead

• Hugely recognized WHILE he was still alive

  • Contrasts from artists like Van Gogh

Career & Influence

• Phases

  • Picasso’s Blue Period

    • A period from 1901 - 1904 where Picasso painted almost exclusively in blue and blue/green because he was extremely depressed

      • He was depressed because his best friend got rejected, shot the girl, and then killed themselves…

  • Picasso’s Rose Period

    • A period from 1904 - 1906 when Picasso moved to Paris and started using a warmer color palette (pink, red + also earthy colors) because he fell in love with a girl

      • Paints a bunch of harlequins (clowns) because he runs into a bunch of them while living in Paris

  • Cubism

    • Picasso’s most famous art style

      • Created by Picasso and George Brache

      • Taking a 3D subject and flattening it into 2D

    • First modern art movement

    • Works

      • Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The young ladies of Avignon) [1907]

        • HEAVILY influenced by African Art

        • Taking traditional subject matter (female nude) and painting it in a non-traditional way

        • Transitions artistic culture to cubism / modern art

  • Influence of African Art

    • Picasso collected a TON of African art

      • ESPECIALLY African masks

    • Bolder, stylized, ovoid forms