Picasso

He was born on 25th October 1881, in Málaga, Spain

PO

RTU

GA

L

FRANCE

In 1900 he moved to París. There he had lots of economic problems. His painting of this time show a hopless world, full of sick people and beggars. This period is known as the “blue period” because it was the main colour used. It finished in 1904.

Pobres a la orilla del mar,Poor people by

the seaside1902,

National Gallery Washington, USA

The cold, hunger and sadness seem to torture these characters. The blue colour emphasizes this sensation.

La vida(Life)1903,

Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA

La planchadora (Woman with an

iron ) 1904,

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Nueva York, USA

In 1904, the main tone was warmer and the topics became more optimistic and hopeful: harlequins, circus scenes, young models, flowers, etc. It is the “pink period”, that will lead to the cubism.

Acróbat and tight-rope walker,

1905,Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia

Acrobats family with a monkey

1905,Konstmuseum,

Göteborg, Sweden

Dos desnudos (two nuded ),

1906,Museum of Moderm Art,

Nueva York, USA

The figure on the left repeats the same gestures than the one on the right: It seems that it is duplicating in the mirror.

1907 is for Picasso a decisive year in which there are important transformations in his artistic development. His meeting with the iberian art from ancient times and the archaic African art, his friendship with Braque and the creation of “Señoritas de Aviñón” will suppose an ending for previous stages and the beginning of a new spatial conception.

Las señoritas

de Aviñón,

1907,Museum of

Moderm Art, Nueva York,

USA

Fábrica de ladrillos en Horta de Ebro, Brick factory 1909, Ermitage Museum, San Petersburgo, Russia

Clarinete y violín,1913,Clarinet and violin

Ermitage Museum, San Petersburgo, Russia

After World War 1st in France there was a certain conservative movement. Picasso got married to a Russian dancer and there was a return to a neoclassical art style with a noticeable academic perfection. But the genius painter, always disconcerting, painted traditional paintings as the same time that innovator ones.

Los tres músicos, The three musicians

1921,Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,

USA

There is an evident sense of humour, especially considering that he could have represented himself with his friends, the pooets s Max Jacob and Apollinaire.

Los tres músicos,The three musicians1921, Museum of Moderm Art,

Nueva York, USA

La danza, The dance

1925,Tate Gallery, London,

UK

The figures are distorted violently and some organs reresent corporal shapes. The figure on the right is from his friend Ramón Pichot, who had died recently.

At the beginning of the 30s Picasso restarted with determination the bullfighting topic.But he didn’t face it from the optimistic side only but he emphasised what remains in this show from the bloody rituals from the ancient times.The bull meant the instinctive strength in Nature .Love and death are linked.

His liking to the Republic Government was more evident when he accepted painting a great one for the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic in the Universal Exhibition in Paris 1937.Picasso chose the topic of the bombing by the Nazy planes to the defenceless vasque town of Guernica. The iconography shows the freedom destroyed by the brutality in Franco regime.

Guernica,1937, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,

Madrid, España

In his last decades, he created lots of paintings, full of strength and a skilful technique. He dominated the topic of the artist and the model, referring to the love power of the look that overcomes the impact of old Age. The series that tribute other important painters from the past, gain another meaning.

Las meninas,1968, Museo Picasso,

Barcelona, España

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973