Pablo Picasso The Pioner of Cubism

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He was one of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism.

Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, as the first child of José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. Picasso's father was a painter whose specialty was the naturalistic depiction of birds. His training under his father began before 1890. He was formally trained in figure drawing and painting in oil. Although Picasso attended art schools throughout his childhood, he never finished his college-level course of study at the Academy of Arts in Madrid, leaving after less than a year.

His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. By 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun. The academic realism is well displayed in "The First Communion" and "Portrait of Aunt Pepa", in 1896, at the age of 14.

In 1897 his realism became tinged with Symbolist influence, in a series of landscape paintings rendered in non naturalistic violet and green tones. What some call his Modernist period (1899-1900) followed under influence of the work of Rossetti, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch.

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. The most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African-influenced Period, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism. Picasso's Blue Period (1901-1904) consists of somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. The same mood pervades the well-known etching "The Frugal Repast" (1904). Blindness is a recurrent theme in Picasso's works of this period, also represented in "The Blindman's Meal" (1903) and in the portrait of "Celestina" (1903). Other frequent subjects are artists, acrobats and harlequins, which became a personal symbol for Picasso.

The Rose Period (1905-1907) is characterized by a more cheery style with orange and pink colors, with many harlequins. He met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of these paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her.

Picasso's African-influenced Period (1907-1909) begins with the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which were inspired by African artifacts. Formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.

Analytic Cubism (1909-1912) is a style of painting Picasso developed along with Braque using monochrome brownish colors. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time are very similar to each other.

Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919) is a further development of Cubism in which cut paper fragments, often wallpaper or portions of newspaper pages, are pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art.

In the period following the upheaval of World War I Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. His paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Ingres. During the 1930s, the Minotaur replaced the harlequin as a motif. It came partly from his contact with the Surrealists, who often used same symbol. It appears in Picasso's "Guernica" which was Picasso's most famous. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner.(http://www.huntfor.com)