Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He experimented in many different styles and changed the world of art during his time.

Early Life

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881 . His father was a drawing teacher. At 10 Pablo became his father’s pupil and at the age of 13 he held his firstexhibition.

His family moved to Barcelona in 1895 where Pablo joined an art academy. In his early period the young artist painted life as he observed it around him – in cafes and on the streets. As a young man he took interest in masterpieces of famous artists like El Greco and de Goya.

At the turn of the century, Picasso went to Paris, which was, at that time, the centre of art and literature.

Blue and Rose period

In 1901 a close friend of Picasso shot himself. This had a great impact on Pablo. He was very sad and began painting his pictures in grey and blue tones instead of bright, vivid colours. This part of his career is called his Blue Period (1901 – 1904)

Later on, he changed his painting style and started using more earth colours – rose, pink or brown. He liked to paint pictures of circus life with dancers and acrobats. This Rose Period lasted until 1907.

Pablo Picasso in 1962

Cubism

When Picasso started working with his friend and fellow painter Georges Braque in Paris they started experimenting with a new style that was called cubism.

Picasso and Braque didn’t want to show nature as it really was. They thought that all objects in nature had geometric forms. In cubism, objects were cut into many flat shapes, which looked like a puzzle. All the sides of a person’s face, for example, were shown at once, maybe even with three eyes instead of two . Cubist painters wanted to show all parts of an object from one angle.

Picasso and Braque also experimented with other materials , like cloth and newspaper clippings, which they glued onto the canvas. This technique became later known as collage.

Classicism

In 1917 Picasso went to Rome to design costumes and scenery for a Russian ballet company. During this period he fell back toclassical forms and painting techniques but never gave up experimenting with cubism.

 Civil War

In 1936 Civil War broke out in Spain. During this period he painted his masterpiece Guernica . It shows the terrified people of theancient Spanish town which was bombed during the Civil War. Picasso was shocked by this inhuman act and in his painting he shows people running in the streets and screaming with their mouths wide open. To display his sadness and anger he used only black and white as well as shades of grey.

 

Guernica, 1936

 During World War II Picasso lived in Paris which, at that time, was under Nazi occupation. The Nazis didn’t like his modern paintings and Picasso had to hide them in a secret vault in the Bank of France.

Later life

After the war Picasso moved to a big house in the southern part of France. There, he continued experimenting with paintings andsculptures.

He continued his work up to his death in 1973. Picasso was known as a very moody person and he also displayed this in his paintings. Sometimes he was thoughtful, even sad, and at other times he could be very humorous. Picasso was never satisfied with his own work and he never stopped experimenting. For his great imagination and skill he is called “El Maestro” of modern art.

Words

• ancient =old
• anger =you want to hurt someone because they have done something bad to you
• angle = the position from which you look at something
• at once = at the same time
• break out = start
• canvas = a piece of cloth that you paint on
• Civil War = war in which groups from the same country fight against each other
• classical = old, traditional
• clipping = to cut something out of a newspaper
• close = if you like someone very much
• cloth = material used for making clothes
• continue = go on
• costume = special clothes that actors wear
• design = to make or draw something
• display = show
• exhibition = a show of paintings or other objects that people can go to and see
• fellow = person that you work with
• flat =smooth, without higher areas
• form = shape
• glue = to make something stick
• humorous = funny
• imagination =if you can create pictures or images in your mind
• impact =influence
• inhuman = very cruel
• join = to become a member of
• masterpieces = a painting or a piece of music that is the best an artist has ever made
• moody =often changing quickly from happy to angry
• observe = see, watch
• occupation = when people enter a country and take control of it
• satisfied =pleased, happy about
• scenery = the painted background of a stage
• scream = shout out because you are afraid of something
• sculpture = an object that an artist makes out of stone , wood, etc
• secret = not many people know about something
• shade = a type of a colour
• shape = form
• skill =the talent that a person has
• take interest in = to be interested in
• technique = the way or method of painting
• terrified = very frightened, afraid
• thoughtful = if you always think a lot about something
• tone = a type of a certain colour
• turn of the century =time when an old century ends and a new one starts
• vault = a room with thick walls where you keep money and other valuable things
• vivid = full of life