Pablo Picasso's Works That Made Him Immortal

Painter Pablo Picasso (doc. Pablopicasso.org)

JAKARTA - Pablo Picasso is the greatest maestro of 20th century artists. His exploratory style of painting has made him widely known. At its peak, Picasso became the first person to create a Cubist painting style movement. A masterpiece that influenced the painting style of the 20th century.

Citing the Biography page, Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. Picasso's artistic blood flowed from his father Jose Ruiz Blasco who was a painter and art teacher as well.

Pablo Picasso was born prematurely. He later grew up as a serious child. Young Picasso had a pair of sharp and alert black eyes, which made him his trademark.

"When I was a child, my mother said to me 'If you become a soldier, you will become a general, if you become a monk you will end up as pope," recalls Picasso quoted by Biography.

Since childhood, his father Picasso taught him to paint. Even at the age of 13, Picasso's skill level had surpassed his father's. Since then Picasso began to lose interest in doing schoolwork, and chose to spend his days scribbling in his notebooks.

It is also what made him known as a bad student. Picasso was even isolated and placed in Calaboose, an empty cell with white walls. In the isolation room, Picasso was even quieter than usual.

"I can stay there forever, drawing endlessly,"

Picasso

In 1895, he and his family moved to Barcelona, Spain. There Picasso enrolled in the city's prestigious School of Fine Arts. Although the school usually only accepts students who are over 14 years of age, Picasso gets an exception because he managed to get satisfactory results.

Less than two years, Picasso moved to Madrid and entered the Royal Academy San Fernando school. However, he was frustrated there because he was too busy again with general subjects.

Two years later Picasso then returned to Barcelona and joined a group of artists and intellectuals. They set up a base in a cafe called El Quatre Gats.

One of the fundamental things that makes Picasso so famous is that he is endlessly exploring his unique character. He experimented from one style to another in art. So that his work looks alive, and people say each of his works is like the work produced by five or six great artists.

"Whenever I want something, I do it in a way that I believe is the way I have to," Picasso said. "Different themes require different methods."

Blue Period

In viewing someone's artwork, art critics usually divide certain periods. And Picasso's first period can be seen in the years 1901 to 1904 which is called the "blue period". In this period as the name implies, blue dominates almost all of Picasso's paintings during that period.

During that period, Picasso moved to Paris, France to open his own studio. There he painted many portraits of poverty, self-isolation and sadness. His emotions deepened when his close friend Carlos Casagemas died. The shades of blue and green in his paintings really dominate at that time.

Picasso's most famous paintings from this period include "Blue Nude," "La Vie" and "The Old Guitarist," all three of which were completed in 1903.

Then in 1905, Picasso began to overcome the depression that had previously debilitated him. His artistic abilities have developed. This can be seen from the introduction of warmer colors including beige, pink and red in his latest paintings. This period is known as the Rose Period (1904-1906).

Another factor that contributed to Picasso's artistic spirit was that he fell in love with a beautiful model, Fernande Olivier. His most famous paintings from the rose period include "Family at Saltimbanques" (1905), "Gertrude Stein" (1905-06) and "Two Nudes" (1906).

Cubism

It is only after the period of the rose that it enters the period that is arguably the most influential: the period of cubism. Cubism is an artistic style pioneered by Picasso and his fellow painter Georges Braque.

In this cube style painting, objects seem to be broken into several parts and put together into abstract shapes. Another feature of this painting is that it highlights the geometric shapes of the composites and depicts them from multiple angles to create a collage-like effect. This style of cubism is so surprising and very enchanting to the art world.

In 1907, Picasso created the painting that is today considered the source of inspiration for Cubist painting. The painting is "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon."

The painting is a depiction of five naked prostitutes, abstracted and distorted with sharp geometric features. The blue, green, and gray blotches of the painting are arguably a masterpiece that no other painter has made before. And it profoundly influenced the direction of art in the later 20th century.

Picasso's works of 1918 and 1927 are classified as classics. A phase in which he painted realism in Picasso's artistic journey which was dominated by experimentation. It was the outbreak of World War I that ushered in the next major change in Picasso's art.

Important works of this period include "Three Women at the Spring" (1921), "Two Women Running on the Beach" (1922), and "The Pipes of Pan" (1923).

Greatest work

From 1927 onwards, Picasso was caught up in the philosophical and cultural movement known as Surrealism. An artistic manifestation which is a product of Cubism itself.

Guernica is Picasso's most famous surrealist painting which is considered one of the greatest paintings in history. This painting was completed in 1937.

This work was created after Nazi German bomber supporting the nationalist forces of Francisco Franco carried out his air attack on the Basque city of Guernica on April 26, 1937. Picasso is furious. His emotional outburst then spilled over to "Guernica" which became this masterpiece.

The black, white, and gray colors in this painting are a surreal expression of the horror of war. Plus the minotaur images and several human-like figures in various countries depicting suffering and terror.

Gurenica is one of the most touching and powerful anti-war paintings in history. Although after World War II Picasso became more political, he joined the Communist Party. During this time he was twice awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize in 1950 and 1961.

At the end of his career, Picasso created his final work of art, "Self Portrait Facing Death." The painting he made using pencils and crayons a year before his death.

His paintings feature both human and ape objects, with green faces and pink hair. The expression in his eyes exuded a sense of wisdom, fear, and uncertainty in life.

A year after completing his final work, Picasso died. He died today on April 8, 47 years ago or in 1973. He died at the age of 91 years in Mougins, France. Reportedly the maestro died of heart failure.