Pablo Picasso
April 23rd, 2008
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso… I’m not going to try to pronounce it. He is more commonly known to you and me as Pablo Picasso, for short. For those of you that may not be familiar with his name, he is one of history’s greatest artists. Before we get into his works, I am going to discuss some of his background. This is my presentation for a spring psychology class at UAT.
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain during the fall of 1881. You may be wondering why he has such a long name. The reason is, his name actually comes from a series of names honoring various saints and relatives. Added to these were Ruiz and Picasso, which was his and father and mother. It was a Spanish custom when he was born to do this with their names. His father’s name was actually Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco, and his mother’s name was María Picasso y López. They were a middle class family. His father, Ruiz, was a painter that specialized naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. He was also a professor of art at the School of Crafts. Young Picasso showed a passion and skill for drawing at an early age. According to his mother, Picasso’s very first words were “Piz, Piz”, which is short for “Lapiz”, the Spanish word for “pencil”. From the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in figure drawing and oil painting. On one occasion the father found his son painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon. Observing the precision of his son’s technique, Ruiz felt that the thirteen-year-old Picasso had surpassed him, and vowed to give up painting.
Picasso’s father and uncle decided to send the young artist to Madrid’s Royal Academy of San Fernando, one of the greatest art schools in the country. In 1897, Picasso was 16, and set off for the first time on his own. Picasso had many difficulties accepting formal instruction, which led him to stop attending class soon after enrollment. In 1900, Picasso made a trip to the art capital of Europe, also known as Paris. There he made friends with Max Jacob, who helped him learn the language and later shared an apartment with. Max slept at night, while Picasso slept during the day- and worked at night. These were times of severe poverty, cold, and desperation. Much of his work had to be burned to keep the small apartment room warm. In 1904, in the middle of a storm, Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a Bohemian artist who later became his mistress. She appears in many of his Rose period paintings. This was not the first or last in the love life of Pablo Picasso. After acquiring some fame and fortune, Picasso left her for Marcelle Humbert, whom he called Eva. Picasso included declarations of his love for Eva in many of his works. In all honesty, there were hundreds of women that had fallen in love with Picasso. All of which could have sworn they were his one and only. Picasso loved the ladies, and the ladies loved him. There were so many in his life, we don’t have time to cover it here.
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 wasn’t allowed to show his work during this time. He retreated to his studio, continuing to paint anyway. Although the Germans outlawed bronze casting in Paris, Picasso continued regardless, using bronze smuggled to him by the French resistance. One of his most famous paintings, titled “Guernica”, depicting the German bombing of Guernica.
Picasso died of a heart attack in 1973. He lived to be 91 years old. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore”. The last quote in the presentation I found interesting, because obviously Picasso wasn’t around for Adobe CS3. I would have loved to seen his take on modern day digital art. Picasso is inspiration to try and make something out of it.
Below are the slides from my presentation:
