Biography
Pablo Picasso, self-portrait Yo, Picasso, 1901, Pablo Picasso was
born in Molaga, Spain, the first child of Jose Ruiz y Blasco and
Maria Picasso y Lopez. He was believed to be a stillborn baby.
However his uncle, Salvador Quiz Blasco a well known doctor, revived
the baby by blowing cigar smoke into lifeless Pablo's lungs [2]. He
was christened with the names Pablo, Diego, Jose, Francisco de
Paula, Juan Nepomuceno, Maria de los Remedios, and Cipriano de la
Santisima Trinidad.[3]
Picasso's father was a painter whose specialty was the naturalistic
depiction of birds and who for most of his life was also a professor
of art at the School of Crafts and a curator of a local museum. The
young Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early
age; according to his mother,[4] his first word was "piz," a
shortening of lopiz, the Spanish word for pencil.[5] It was from his
father that Picasso had his first formal academic art training, such
as figure drawing and painting in oil. Although Picasso attended art
schools throughout his childhood, often those where his father
taught, he never finished his college-level course of study at the
Academy of Arts (Academia de San Fernando) in Madrid, leaving after
less than a year.
Personal
life
 After studying art in Madrid, he made his first trip to Paris in
1900, the art capital of europe. In Paris, he lived with Max Jacob
(journalist and poet), who helped him learn French. Max slept at
night and Picasso slept during the day as he worked at night. There
were times of severe poverty, cold, and desperation. Much of his
work had to be burned to keep the small room warm. In 1901, with his
friend Soler, he founded the magazine Arte Joven in Madrid. The
first edition was entirely illustrated by him. From that day, he
started to simply sign his work Picasso, while before he signed
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso.
In
the early years of the 20th century, Picasso, still a struggling
youth, divided his time between Barcelona and Paris, where in 1904,
he began a long-term relationship with Fernande Olivier. It is she
who appears in many of the Rose period paintings. After acquiring
fame and some fortune, Picasso left Olivier for Marcelle Humbert,
whom Picasso called eva. Picasso included declarations of his love
for eva in many Cubist works.
Pablo Picasso, Nature morte a la chaise cannee,1912In Paris, Picasso
entertained a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and
Montparnasse quarters, including Andre Breton, poet Guillaume
Apollinaire, and writer Gertrude Stein. Apollinaire was arrested on
suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911.
Apollonaire pointed to his friend Picasso, who was also brought in
for questioning, but both were later exonerated.[6]
 He
maintained a number of mistresses in addition to his wife or primary
partner. Picasso was married twice and had four children by three
women. In 1918, Picasso married Olga Khokhlova, a ballerina with
Sergei Diaghilev's troupe, for whom Picasso was designing a ballet,
Parade, in Rome. Khokhlova introduced Picasso to high society,
formal dinner parties, and all the social niceties attendant on the
life of the rich in 1920s Paris. The two had a son, Paulo, who would
grow up to be a dissolute motorcycle racer and chauffeur to his
father. Khokhlova's insistence on social propriety clashed with
Picasso's bohemian tendencies and the two lived in a state of
constant conflict. In 1927 Picasso met 17 year old Marie-Therese
Walter and began a secret affair with her. Picasso's marriage to
Khokhlova soon ended in separation rather than divorce, as French
law required an even division of property in the case of divorce,
and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to have half his wealth. The two
remained legally married until Khokhlova's death in 1955. Picasso
carried on a long-standing affair with Marie-Therese Walter and
fathered a daughter, Maia, with her. Marie-Therese lived in the vain
hope that Picasso would one day marry her, and hanged herself four
years after Picasso's death.
 The
photographer and painter Dora Maar was also a constant companion and
lover of Picasso. The two were closest in the late 1930s and early
1940s and it was Maar who documented the painting of Guernica.
After the liberation of Paris in 1944, Picasso began to keep company
with a young art student, Françoise Gilot. The two eventually became
lovers, and had two children together, Claude and Paloma. Unique
among Picasso's women, Gilot left Picasso in 1953, allegedly because
of abusive treatment and infidelities. This came as a severe blow to
Picasso.
He
went through a difficult period after Gilot's departure, coming to
terms with his advancing age and his perception that, now in his
70s, he was no longer attractive, but rather grotesque to young
women. A number of ink drawings from this period explore this theme
of the hideous old dwarf as buffoonish counterpoint to the beautiful
young girl, including several from a six-week affair with Genevieve
Laporte, who in June 2005 auctioned off the drawings Picasso made of
her.
 Picasso
was not long in finding another lover, Jacqueline Roque. Roque worked at
the Madoura Pottery, where Picasso made and painted ceramics. The two
remained together for the rest of Picasso's life, marrying in 1961.
Their marriage was also the means of one last act of revenge against
Gilot. Gilot had been seeking a legal means to legitimize her children
with Picasso, Claude and Paloma. With Picasso's encouragement, she had
arranged to divorce her then husband, Luc Simon, and marry Picasso to
secure her children's rights. Picasso then secretly married Roque after
Gilot had filed for divorce in order to exact his revenge for her
leaving him.
 Picasso had constructed a huge gothic structure and could afford
large villas in the south of France, at Notre-dame-de-vie on the
outskirts of Mougins, in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur. Although he
was a celebrity, there was often as much interest in his personal
life as his art.
In
addition to his manifold artistic accomplishments, Picasso had a
film career, including a cameo appearance in Jean Cocteau's
Testament of Orpheus. Picasso always played himself in his film
appearances. In 1955 he helped make the film Le Mystere Picasso (The
Mystery of Picasso) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
 Pablo
Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France, while he and his wife
Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. His final words were "Drink
to me, drink to my health, you know I can't drink any more."[7] He was
interred at Castle Vauvenargues' park, in Vauvenargues, Bouches-du-Rhone.
Jacqueline Roque prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending
the funeral.[8]
Pacifism
Picasso remained neutral during World War I, the Spanish Civil War
and World War II, refusing to fight for any side or country.
 Picasso
never commented on this but encouraged the idea that it was because
he was a pacifist.[citation needed] Some of his contemporaries,
including Braque, felt that this neutrality had more to do with
cowardice than principle.[citation needed] As a Spanish citizen
living in France, Picasso was under no compulsion to fight against
the invading Germans in either World War. In the Spanish Civil War,
service for Spaniards living abroad was optional and would have
involved a voluntary return to the country to join either side.
While Picasso expressed anger and condemnation of Francisco Franco
and fascists through his art, he did not take up arms against them.
He also remained aloof from the Catalan independence movement during
his youth despite expressing general support and being friendly with
activists within it. No political movement seemed to compel his
support to any great degree, though he did become a member of the
Communist Party.
 During the Second World War, Picasso remained in Paris while the
Germans occupied the city. Picasso's artistic style did not fit the
Nazi views of art, so he was not able to show his works during this
time. Retreating to his studio, he continued to paint all the while.
Although the Germans outlawed bronze casting in Paris, Picasso
continued regardless, using bronze smuggled to him by the French
resistance.
In
1944 Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended an
international peace conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the
Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.[9] But party
criticism of a portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic cooled
Picasso's interest in communist politics, though he remained a loyal
member of the Communist Party until his death. His beliefs tended
towards anarcho-communism.[citation needed]
In a
1945 interview with Jerome Seckler, Picasso declared: "I am a
communist and my painting is a communist painting. But if I were a
shoemaker, royalist or communist or anything else, I would not
necessarily hammer my shoes in any special way to show my politics."
[citation needed]
Work
  Picasso's
work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his
later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his
work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the
African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and
Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919).
In
1939 - 40 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, under its dire |
