Pablo Picasso
True Kelley
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Recognized very early as a genius. Sold his first picture at age 9. By time he died at 91 made an estimated 50,000 pieces of art. He made paintings, posters, sculptures in stone and metal, ceramics, drawings, collages, prints, poetry, stage sets, costumes. He constantly thought of new ideas, but as soon as he'd mastered one technique, he'd move on to the next.
Born 25 Oct 1881, Malaga, southern Spain. Brief period at art school but they wanted him to just copy old masters, so he went to Paris. His best friend shot himself after a failed love affair. As a response, Picasso painted several gloomy pics. This was his Blue Period - 1903 fifty paintings, but no-one wanted the gloomy things on their walls.
Moved back to Paris, got a GF (Fernande Olivier) so we got his happier Pink Period. He always had pets, incl many dogs. One, a big old hound named Frika, saved them from starving when he trotted in trailing a string of sausages.
1907 Les Demoiselles D'Avignon (8 feet by 8 feet) is now seen as the first modern art painting. P was trying to paint multiple facets of the women at once.
P became close friends with another artist, Georges Braque. They invented cubism - trying to depict people, objects, landscapes from multiple sides at once. "I knew we were painting strange things, but the world seemed like a strange place to us."
1917 married a beautiful dancer, Olga Khokhlova. They had a son, Paulo 1921. P painted mother and son in a new style, with thick bodies and legs. He said he was remembering being a child and crawling under table and seeing his aunts' legs. See Three Women At The Spring
The marriage disintegrated. 1927 P met Marie-Therese Walter. They had a child, a girl named Maya, in 1935. A year later he met a photographer named Dora Maar.
1937 Germans bombed Guernica, killing 1600 civilians. P outraged, produced his most famous painting, 26 foot x 12 foot Guernica. Finished it in 3 weeks. Dora took many photos of him working on it.
1944 met Francoise Gilot. They had 2 children, Claude 1947, and Paloma, 1949.
Finally married Jacqueline Roque, when he was 80. She stayed with him to the end. P painted at least 150 portraits of her.
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